All Knighter: Bakugan Retold
by Leo Four
Summary: Bakugan like you've never seen it before, All Knighter is an alternate version of the original Bakugan adventure. Featuring new characters and returning favorites, we hope you enjoy, All Knighter: Bakugan Retold.
1. E1: We All Start Somewhere

Had to tinker with this for a while for the formatting to work correctly, FF could use an onsite tutorial (or maybe I could use a better brain). Enjoy All Knighter: Bakugan Retold!

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"Someday in the future someone will read this and go, 'that can't be true, can it? But I'm telling you, it is! My whole world changed one day when out of nowhere, random cards began falling from the sky everywhere, like rain. But it wasn't wet (wet, haha, joke). We didn't know where they were coming from or who sent them, but we did know they were more than ordinary cards. They landed all over the planet, and each one contained a small sphere, which opened up into a creature we decided to call Bakugan. Pretty soon, us kids decided to create a cool name game (due to a lack of the internet or parental concern for our safety), which was when we discovered that the cards and bakugan within weren't just toys after all; they could transform into fantastic beasts, which we used to fight each other in amazing battles we call Brawls. My name is Greyson, and with my friends Yui, Kai, Yama, and Kasai, we call ourselves the Bakugan Battle Brawlers!".

"whatcha doing?" A voice came.

Greyson looked up from the paper he was doodling on, now fully covered in words and pictures describing the full Bakugan backstory. He looked beside him, his friend and classroom neighbor Yama looking inquisitively toward him, his brown eyes glowing behind his glasses. "Dwawing pictures." Grey responded in a slightly higher pitched voice, looking over the paper he had decorated proudly. "can i see?" his friend asked, mimicking his tone of voice, one a person would use to speak to a baby or a dog. Greyson nodded, picking up his masterpiece and handing it to Yama, who reached out to grab it with his light brown hand.

Yama had a darker skin tone, tan in a way, matched by his buzzcut chocolate coloured hair. This contrasted Greyson intensely, whose hair was grey (because of reasons that were related to lightning, an aluminum baseball bat, and being the age of 5 in a thunderstorm), not really styled and left to sit the way it did naturally. He also possessed a more typical skin tone for the area, being caucasian and all. Both wore average clothing, Greyson sporting a black and blue t-shirt sleeved hoodie over a greyish Bepis shirt with a pair of black sweatpants (the ones with the two blue lines going from either hip to the ankle). Yama meanwhile, was sporting this seasons green Ireland sports jersey and tan cargo pants. Average clothing, for sure. Yama soon handed back the paper, giving a thumbs up and a smile, his brown eyes meeting Grey's own, his left was green, and his right was blue (for reasons not related to lightning). "neat." was the rating. "wanna see something amazing?" Yama asked after a few moments had passed. The classroom was decently rowdy by this point, with enough people speaking so that no single conversation stood out. "Sure!" Greyson responded, excited, as usually when Yama said something was cool, it almost always was. The shorter boy leaned over and gripped the zipper of his schoolbag, slowly dragging it over the arc of the item, revealing its contents. Inside were several books, a brown water bottle, a megaphone, and an almost empty paper bag once containing the remains of a lunch.

Did I mention the megaphone.

"Dude, that is sick!" Grey said slightly louder as Yama zipped his bag closed. "Are you gonna use that during the brawl?" he continued, referring to the match planned after class had concluded. "yep, yama's going LOUD." he responded, emphasising the last word in a way that brought out the power behind his voice, leading a few students to turn their heads his way. "Oh yeah, they're brawling after school" someone said, the topic of several conversations switching as Yama sank into his chair, slightly embarrassed at his "outburst". Grey chuckled in response, with the conversation continuing on until class ended, the former describing their battle strategy, and Yama detailing as to how he got his hands on the amplification device.

 _"BUNG BUNG BUNG BUNG"_

The sound of the school bell was loud yet somehow soft, not like a bell but almost like a distorted piano key played four times over. Nevertheless, kids flooded the hallways and began their routes toward whatever way was home, with Grey and Yama transitioning into the efficient stream of people headed toward the school atrium. The structure of the atrium itself was an interesting design, an octagon shape with hallways running around it, with tiers running down toward the middle into a clear area, commonly filled with tables during lunchtime. A large stage also ran through the area, and it was overall well designed, and the perfect location for staging a brawl. Grey and Yama walked down the steps heading down the left side of the atrium structure, seeing their two friends waiting for them.

Yui, wearing her blonde hair in her typical extravagant manner with two rear ponytails combining into one, wore her turquoise kittenz hoodie open, showing a white tank top underneath. She also had a pair of jeans with tears over the knees (ones she had made herself no less) and a pair of, ugs. Why ugs? Because they're comfy and fun to say the name of, according to her. Kai meanwhile stood a few paces taller than the rest of the crew, his short black hair kept combed forward, parting sideways across his forehead. He wore a black coat with a plaid interior, also open and exposing his green racoon t-shirt, paired with dark baggy jeans and a pair of worn hiking boots. The other twos choice in footwear contrasted Grey and Yama's, who simply wore sneakers (though Greyson's were significantly dirtier). They had blue and green eyes respectively, both with caucasian skin.

"Hallo!" Yui greeted the two arrivals in a higher pitched yet deeper toned voice, waving to them. "Greetings fellow humans!" Grey responded. "Are you prepared for some bakugan brawling action!". "Hell yeah!" Kai said, retrieving his hands from his jacket pocket and placing them within his pants pockets, retrieving his brawling gear. Greyson nodded to his opponent, taking his backpack off and opening it, retrieving his own card holder, bakugan rack, and a small, cushioned baggie that contained his beasts. As a congregation of other students arrived within the atrium to watch the match, Greyson and Kai fixed their gear onto themselves, with Yama quickly mounting the stage beside them, taking a quick swig of water from his brown bottle while Grey and Kai arranged themselves perpendicular to each other.

"GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY!" Yama announced in a voice that sounded as if it was not his own based on how loud and passionate it was. "ARE Y'ALL READY FOR SOME BRAWLING?".

"Shut up and make animals kill each other!"

"JOHNNY HAS THE RIGHT IDEA!" Yama responded as Kai and Grey drew their field cards from their respective holsters. Each of them shot a glance and a nod to Yama, signalling they were ready.

"ALRIGHT FOLKS!" he roared, raising a fist into the air. "LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!"

 _ **"BAKUGAN, FIELD OPEN!"**_

Kai and Grey quickly drew their cards upward, both yelling the words in perfect synchronization, causing their rectangular items to glow in a rainbow light. Reality began to distort as a pentagram circle formed beneath them, bearing the six bakugan attributes spinning around as the circle did, with people from the crowd stepping into it to ensure their spectating places in the arena. Outside of the circle, time began to slow down to a crawl, sound distorting, the hum of cars outside and the drone of conversation warping to a standstill.

Somewhere some dude's pudding was about to hit the floor.

The skylight of the atrium was slowly replaced by the sky of the field, with the somewhat messy floor of the area being replaced by pure white. In a manner of about ten seconds, the atrium had been completely replaced by an area built not for education, but for brawling.

The distance between Kai, Greyson, the spectators, and Yama had grown significantly during the fields formation, which is where the megaphone came into play. Yama had opened his bag during the field formation, used to its reality bending effects due to the sheer number of brawls he had spectated, and had the white amplifier in hand by the time the fight was ready to commence, holding it up to his mouth and inhaling. "ALRIGHT, TODAY'S FIGHT IS A ONE ON ONE BRAWL BETWEEN THE AQUOS VENTUS BRAWLER KAI TENSHI-"

Kai raised his fist into the air at the mention of his name, gripping a card in his other hand-

"- AND THE ALL ATTRIBUTE STAR GREYSON NOBORU!"

Grey made a face and waved to his audience, also taking hold of his gate card with his out of use hand.

"WITHOUT FURTHER ADO- adieu? adoo? hmmm… BRAWLERS, BEGIN!"

With Yama's permission to brawl given, both brawlers immediately raised the cards they had prepared.

"GATE CARD, SET!"

The two cards flew toward each other, bypassing the other and landing opposite to the brawler that had thrown it, with Grey's in front of Kai and Kai's in front of Grey. The two small rectangles glowed for a moment in the colours of their respective attributes before expanding to massive size, the two cards bridging the distance between Greyson and Kai near instantly. Not one to let the fight turn into a staring contest, Grey immediately pulled out one of his bakugan, a red and orange sphere, and prepared to fire it.

"Bakugan, Brawl!"

The Pyrus Serpenoid was launched onto the gate card directly in front of Greyson, which belonged to Kai. The small sphere landed on the gate card, flipping open before its eyes began to glow, the creature disappearing in a vortex of fire and red light. "Serpenoid, Stand!" was heard as two large red coils of scaled flesh emerged from the card, rotating as Serpenoid familiarized himself with his new form, his serpentine head emerging from the card, with his pointed tail not being to far behind. Serpenoid reoriented himself to face Kai, sticking his tongue out as to sniff the battle environment, and possibly to intimidate his target.

"Pyrus Serpenoid, 240 g's." was heard from Kai's bakupod, a small wristwatch device used for brawling. He glanced down at it, then quickly sent a spectator's invite to Yama so he could narrate this.

"LOOKS LIKE THIS BATTLE MIGHT GET A BIT SNAKEY SHAKEY!"

"That was awful!"

"I DON'T CARE!"

Kai, knowing he had the advantage in this scenario due to Grey's bakugan being on a gate card he owned, quickly selected his next bakugan, a small blue sphere which slightly smelled of crab. "Alright, les do this!" Kai mumbled to his bakugan before arcing his hand backward in preparation to throw it.

"BAKUGAN, BRAWL!"

The Aquos Limulus shot toward the gate card of Serpenoid, landing on it and rolling to a stop before popping open. "BAKUGAN STAND!" accompanied the crablike creatures opening as the sphere disappeared into a whirlpool of water, Serpenoid slithering to reorient himself in a defensive stance. The now formed Limulus surfaced out of the watery vortex, snapping its claws at Serpenoid as if to taunt the bakugan. Grey quickly glanced at his bakupod; Aquos Limulus, 240 gpower, same as Serpenoid, but Limulus was an aquos bakugan, which had a natural advantage over Pyrus. Greyson's own bakugan shot him a glance, looking for guidance on what to do, Grey responding with a raised fist; a sign to attack. Serpenoid faced back forward, coiling himself and preparing to attack as Greyson drew a new card.

"Ability Activate: Rapid Pyrus!"

The card in Greyson's hand glowed in a red light, transferring its energy toward Serpenoid, causing the bakugan's tail stinger to ignite, a searing fire engulfing it and forming what could best be described as a flaming blade. Serpenoid immediately went to utilize his newfound weaponry, snaking towarding Limulus and swiftly dodging the fortress bakugan's claw attacks. The pyrus serpent quickly began coiling his body around Limulus' shell, oriented in such a way that the bakugan's claws couldn't reach him, and began repeatedly stabbing his flaming stinger at the chitinous barrier protecting the aquos bakugan. Limulus' gpower rapidly lowered as Serpenoid intensified his assault, being empowered as his own energy rose due to the ability cards effect.

"Pyrus Serpenoid 290 g's, Aquos Limulus 190 g's" Greyson's bakupod piped, its user feeling rather proud of himself. "Keep going buddy, he can't take much more of this!" Grey yelled, encouraging Serpenoid, who began attacking with even greater intensity. Limulus meanwhile, while being brutalized, was still relatively calm, knowing Kai likely had a plan up his sleeve.

"GATE CARD OPEN!"

And there it was.

The terrain beneath Limulus and Serpenoid began glowing in a blue light, its effects taking hold immediately. "ENERGY MERGE!" was heard being yelled by Kai as the card took hold, transferring 100 gpower from Serpenoid to Limulus, the former's fire tail fizzling out as his energy was drained. Taking advantage of Serpenoid's weakness, Limulus quickly spun around in a circle, surprising Serpenoid, who had loosened his coiling grip, and causing him to go limp, completely exposing himself. It was but a moment before Limulus quickly utilized its two claws, making an x-shaped slash across the bakugans neck. Serpenoid barely had a chance to hiss in pain before his body converted back into energy, which reformed back into his sphere form, being shot back toward Greyson, bouncing off of the ground near him. "Pyrus Serpenoid 190 g's, Aquos Limulus 290 g's, Pyrus Serpenoid: Defeated." Grey's bakupod chimed, leading him to exhale heavily out of his nose while he retrieved his bakugan off of the ground. Serpenoid popped open in his hand, the now tiny anxious creature's head lowered in shame. "Don't worry bud." Greyson said, nudging the pyrus bakugan's head with his index finger. "We'll get em next time.".

"AND IT LOOKS LIKE KAI AND LIMULUS WINS THIS ROUND, WATER BEATS FIRE… unless you live in california, then nature just hates you." Yama said partly into the megaphone, Limulus celebrating on the gate card by snapping its claws repeatedly in what could be described as a victory song. The student spectators cheered at what they were witnessing, with Limulus returning to its ball form shortly after, shooting back toward Kai and landing in his hand. "Hell yes! Thas how we do it!" he yelled triumphantly, shoving his closed hand around Limulus into the air. "Match isn't over yet cowboy!" Greyson yelled toward him, grinning. The next match would be on his gate card, giving him the advantage. Kai nodded at Greyson, each brawler grabbing their next bakugan and preparing to brawl once more.

"Bakugan, Brawl!" Greyson yelled, shooting his bakugan out first. A small black sphere shot out across the field and landed on the gate card directly in front of Kai. A darkus Griffon opened upon landing, with a spiral of dark energy quickly engulfing the area around it. A chimera-like beast, still shrouded in shadow energy, shot out of the card, floating in the air as the dark power dissipated off of it, revealing the darkus Griffon's true form, a majestic winged lion creature and one of Greyson's best fighters. Griffon hovered in the air, occasionally flapping his wings and looking down and Kai, growling lightly as if to taunt the brawler. Kai smirked back before grabbing his next bakugan, ready to brawl.

"BAKUGAN, BRAWL!" was yelled as a light green sphere shot out of Kai's hand at high velocity, heading toward the card in front of him and opening on impact. The green Mantris' eyes glowed as a vortex of wind spun up and around the bakugan, its insectoid limbs emerging from the gate card and pulling the rest of its body into stance. The praying mantis bakugan gazed up at Griffon, who still maintained stable flight despite the turbulence caused by Mantris' entrance.

"DARKUS GRIFFON VERSUS VENTUS MANTRIS, TWO ABOMINATIONS OF SATAN, ONE SLIGHTLY MORE CUTE!" Yama amplified, checking his bakupod for the data on the brawl.

"I LOVE YOU GRIFF!" Yui yelled toward Grey's darkus bakugan, Griff grinning at his seemingly biggest fan.

"Darkus Griffon 260 g's, Ventus Mantris 240 g's." was the information provided, Greyson had the advantage, meaning Kai would need to pull off some major strategy in order to win. Greyson knew this as well, and intended to make his temporary advantage count as he pulled an ability card.

"Ability Card Activate: Griffon Stance!"

The card in Greyson's hand glowed in a purple light, with Griffon beginning to glow in a similar aura. Griffon Stance was one of Griffon's many unique cards, allowing the darkus bakugan to access his roar abilities. Griffon continued hovering in place meanwhile, grinning and barking at Mantris in the bakugan's typically cocky fashion. Mantris would have glared back if it was capable, but instead prepared itself to attack as Kai readied his own ability card.

"ABILITY ACTIVATE: TWIN MACHETE!"

Matris' already formidable bladed appendages glowed in a green light, extending into an even more dangerous serrated form. Should contact be made, it would be devastating to Griffon, who was still airborne and out of range. Mantris quickly ejected itself into the air toward him, blades primed for attack against Griffon as it headed toward the darkus bakugan at high velocity.

"Gate Card Open! Warlock!"

The gate card that hosted the brawl glowed, Mantris' energy blades dissipating back to their original form due to Warlock's negation effect, much to the surprise of the ventus bakugan, still traveling at velocity toward Griffon. Using this velocity to his advantage, Griffon immediately performed a mid-air flip, using his hind leg to stomp Mantris' head, sending the insect back down to the ground. Mantris hit the ground with force, sending a small amount of dust into the air as the spectators cheered for Griffon, who returned the favour with a cocky grin, Grey already priming his next move.

"Ability Card, Activate: Griffon Roar: Crystal Cannon!"

The card in Greyson's hand glowed before dissipating into energy, energy that shot immediately toward his darkus bakugan and gathered within its horn. As darkus power continued to charge, Mantris was coming back to its senses, mainly the sense of hearing, which detected the key sound of Kai yelling: "GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!". Mantris, confused and attempting to recall previous events for a moment, looked up, seeing Griffon charging his ability before desperately attempting to dodge it.

But it was too late.

A projectile of darkus energy shot from Griffon's crystalline horn, enveloping Mantris in the cone-shaped beam of the attack, sending dust flying as the laser continued firing. Griffon, still smirking, stopped the attack after 5 seconds of continuous fire, grinning as Mantris came back into view, nearly incinerated by the energy projectile. Mantris quickly returned back to ball form as Griffon roared in triumph, the ventus sphere shooting back toward Kai, who barely managed to catch it. "WAY TO GO GRIFF!" Greyson yelled. "Damn it…" Kai mumbled, looking at Griffon's celebratory roaring.

"WHAT CAN WE SAY, GRIFFON CAN'T LOSE, NOT WITH AN INSTAGRAM PAGE WITH THIS MANY OVERLY DEVOTED FANGIRLS!" Yama announced, Griffon continuing to smirk as he reverted back to ball form, shooting back into Grey's raised hand. The two brawlers were tied, and it was agreed that the next match would decide the winner. As the crowd quieted down, the two brawlers thought of their strategies, each of them looking over the bare field and thinking. The tension was rising.

"ALRIGHT LADIES, GENTLEMAN, AND BEINGS OF ALL ATTRIBUTES, THE NEXT MATCH STARTS-

 _Meanwhile, at this very moment in time, something interesting was occurring within an entirely new dimension. A slow, cold wind blew over the cold surface of the realm, its rocky terrain hosting no life. The fossilized corpses of countless bakugan lined the landscape, many of them frozen in stasis in the exact positions they had entered the dimension in, the agony still captured in their facial expressions. The entire land was dead, its sky providing little light and the occasional darkus lightning storm._

 _Until now._

 _Out of the fossilized corpse of a Pyrus Serpenoid, a small glowing sphere emerged. Not a bakugan ball, but instead just a sphere of pure energy. Pure hatred. An amalgamation of hate, anger, and distrust, all directed toward the bakugans emotions of being trapped within the hellish realm known as the Doom Dimension. The small sphere began hovering along the terrain, traveling over the stony landscape in no direction in particular before it noticed something. Out of the fossilized body of a Juggernoid, a blue sphere, composed of similar emotions, rose. The two sphere gravitated toward each other, soon only being separated by a few feet. That's when something interesting occured._

 _They combined._

 _The new purple sphere grew slightly in size, continuing its journey through the dead plains, soon finding more of its kind wandering. Out of the bodies of Ravenoids, Sauruses, Hynoids, Lasermen, Griffons, Terrorclaws, and many other bakugan, more and more spheres of negative emotion emerged and merged with each other, soon joining the new amalgamation sphere that started with the red hatred energy. This sphere found itself rising into the air as it grew in size, more and more hatred energy forming into it, fueling it. The emotions themselves found purpose; personification._

 _First bones, sturdier than anything found naturally in this world, were formed, purposefully weaponized at the hands, feet, tail, and wings to personify the violence contained within. Then came the flesh, hyper efficient, purely muscle, infused with the best parts of all bakugan at play with its creation. Then came things like skin, eyes, teeth, all made with the most impure of intentions. They were designing a predator._

 _Then came the brain. An object that would be created and infused with the anger, hatred, and violent nature of all those who had come to form its body, purely composed of instinct and vile energies._

 _It was complete._

 _The massive sphere of energy exploded, sending a massive shockwave across the dead realm that would have disturbed any living thing existing there. As the energy dissipated, a single life form was found floating where the sphere once was. It was white and gold, with blades hands, feet, wings, and a tail that could easily cut stone. Eyes that were made for hunting opened, processing their first pieces input data. The mind of the creature began working, the nature of its formation giving it purpose. It was created by an anger of imprisonment within this realm. And given its physical form, it could now escape. Escape. That was what it needed to do. Quickly, the bakugan made a single downward stroke of its wings, sending it flying into the sky and toward its target._

" **Vestroia** "

"-RIGHT NOW!"

"GATE CARD, SET!" both brawlers yelled, throwing two new gate cards down in a pattern identical to before. "Bakugan, Brawl!" was yelled by Greyson as his darkus Griffon was shot at Kai's gate card, the bakugan popping open and emerging from a dark vortex of energy, performing a opening roar and staring down Kai in what he referred to as "The Cocky Griffon Death Stare". Kai, not to be upstaged, quickly retrieved his own bakugan, throwing it and saying, rather yelling, the phrase: "BAKUGAN BRAWL!". Limulus shot out onto the gate card Griffon was on, a vortex of water absorbing the opened sphere while the Aquos bakugan's true form took hold, the horseshoe crab of death soon emerging from the watery vortex. "Alright, les do this!" Kai said, shoving his hand forward and signalling, his other hand already gripping Mantris. "GATE CARD OPEN! TRIPLE BATTLE!".

The gate card hosting the brawl glowed in a brilliant white light, the two combatants seemingly pausing, Griffon hovering in mid-air with no propulsion from his wings, and Limulus sitting still, claws aimed forward. As was Triple Battle's effect; the battle is paused until a third bakugan enters, hence Kai's preparation in having Mantris at the ready. "BAKUGAN BRAWL!" was audible as Mantris entered the fight, a torrent of wind signalling the insectoids arrival into the fight. Griffon began flapping his wings once again, and Limulus' movements were not longer restricted. Griffon's smirk faltered for a moment as the battle resumed, now with two opponents instead of one. He quickly glanced back at Greyson, who he assumed had things under control. Greyson shot the look back, nodding in an attempt to give Griffon a semblance of his confidence back, quickly grabbing an ability card in an attempt to salvage the situation.

"You can do it Griff!" Yui yelled, encouraging her favourite competitor as Greyson held his ability card up.

"Ability Activate: Griffon Stance!"

Griffon's body began glowing in the darkus purple aura seen in the previous round, empowering the bakugan slightly and giving him access to his specialized abilities. Still, Griffon's confidence was faltering, and the fact Kai, Limulus, Mantris, and a crowd of fans seemingly all glaring at him was not helping. "Alright boys, les get this done!" Kai yelled, pointing toward Griffon.

"CHARGE!"

And thus began their melee brawl, though somewhere else within the Bakugan realm, a different sort of combat had began. _The creature from before, one of hatred and anger, found itself flying toward what he assumed was Vestroia, heading toward a pair of twin lights, both shining brightly. It stopped itself as it approached, sensing something resonating within itself._

" **The Cores…** "

 _The bakugan of hatred was about to resume his approach when a new instance formed. A square portal opened close to the two cores, with a white, dragon-like creature exiting it. It was Naga, intent on taking the powers of the cores and achieving ultimate power. Vestroia was already unstable, anyone inside of it knew that, but the action about to be taken by Naga would wreak havoc to a scale never before seen by the bakugan species. " **Yes… Finally…** " Naga said, moving toward the core, still not noticing the doom bakugan, who kept their distance, coasting the perimeter. Naga continued to move closer toward one of the cores, one glowing with darker energy; The Silent Core. The Doom Creature observed with his almost telescopic predator eyes as Naga laid each of his winged arms around the core, the negative energy beginning to transfer into his body. " **Yes… YES!** " he yelled, feeling his body flooding with power. " **THE POWER, IT'S…** " Naga began, getting momentarily distracted by something in the corner of his eyes. It looked like a bakugan, possibly a Haos one based on its colour scheme. " **How did you get here…** " Naga thought for a moment, distracting himself from the task at hand, causing his focus to shatter. Negative energy began to flood into Naga faster and faster, his momentary lapse in focus being his downfall. Naga's body began to fall into the core, unable to contain the amount of power being flooded into it. " **Wait, No, STOP!** " he roared, his body sinking into the silent core, inducing a pain beyond the likes of anything he had ever felt before. The lower half of his body had already been absorbed into the core, and he was sinking fast, unable to use his arms to pull himself out as they to began descending into the sphere of Silent energy. Naga could only watch as his neck slowly sank in as well, glaring toward the bakugan who had broke his focus, which was flying away at this point. " **This is your fault…** " he mumbled before his head sank in fully._

 _" **THIS IS YOUR FAULT!** "_

 _Naga's presence within the Silent Core almost immediately began sending shockwaves through Vestroia, the disbalance of energy being to wreak havoc and dim the lines between the separate worlds. Shockwaves were sent out from the cores, causing the realms of Vestroia to begin warping. The doom being that Naga held responsible paused its flight, looking out over the realms for a moment, sensing that something was occuring. Before it could decide its next move, the dimensional lining degraded further, causing not only the realms of Vestroia to begin to overlap, but the lines between dimensions themselves began to distort. The doom being felt itself being quickly yanked backward as a dimensional tear opened behind it, pulling it inward._

" **No… NO, I'M SO CLOSE!** "

 _Despite its best effort, the Doom Creature found itself being dragged into the dimensional warp, quickly grabbing at the edge of the portal in an attempt to remain in Vestroia, but to no avail. It quickly found itself barrelling down the interdimensional portal, feeling its body being torn apart into energy._

" **NO, THIS CAN'T HAPPEN, NO!** "

"Ability Card Activate! Griffon Roar: Spiral Power!"

Griff's wings glowed with darkus energy as Greyson's ability card bestowed power unto the bakugan in question, boosting its g power by 100.

"Darkus Griffon 360 g's, Ventus Mantris and Aquos Limulus combined 480 g's."

"Dang it… HIT MANTRIS WITH IT FIRST!" Greyson commanded, pointing toward the Ventus bakugan in question. The brawl was intense, being quite balanced despite one side outnumbering the other. Griffon was stronger than both Mantris and Limulus individually, but together they outclassed the darkus bakugan by over 100 g's. The outcome of the battle was anyone's guess. "Well Grey? Les finish this!" Kai yelled, grinning at his friend. "Hehe, no way you'll beat us!" Greyson responded, pounded his chest with his fist. Kai grinned, pulling out an ability card, with Greyson mirroring him.

"ABILITY ACTIVATE: SLICE CUTTER!"

"Ability Activate: Griffon Roar: Crystal Cannon!"

"ABILITY ACTIVATE: AQUA CANNON!"

Mantris' claws began glowing as darkus energy collected within Griff's horn, Limulus also preparing its own beam attack, each bakugan prepared to unleash its power at maximum. And then it happened. Limulus' Aquos Cannon and Griff's Crystal Cannon both shot out from their respective launchers, colliding with explosive force, sending out an energy explosion in all directions. Meanwhile, Mantris quickly flanked Griffon, jumping at him with claws outstretched. Griff prepared to counter with his own claws when the shockwave hit, the reaction from the cores of Vestroia finally reaching the field.

The field shattered like a mirror, the terrain, the skyline, reality itself within the field broke like glass in a flash of white light, momentarily blinding everyone inside.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?" Kai yelled, the sound of his voice being drowned out as even sound began to distort within the field. "I don't… What the heck?!" Grey yelled, the field fully destabilized, quickly collapsing as the outside world re-established dominance over the localized pocket of reality. Time quickly returned to normal, the sounds of the school; people talking, cars driving outside, swiftly went back to how they once were.

Some dudes pudding hit the floor.

"What the…?" Kai mumbled, pushing the palms of his hands into his eye sockets, his optics hurting from the flash. "What was that?" Yui asked, gripping her forehead and standing up, looking around. "the field just… collapsed…" Yama said, noting how the environment had returned to the school atrium. Greyson walked forward, picking up all three bakugan balls, which were arranged in a similar fashion to how their battle forms were moments prior, and looking down at them. "Maybe it was the collision?" Grey suggested, tossing two of the bakugan back to Kai, who caught them both with one hand. "You know, from Griff and Limulus' cannon attacks?". "that's a possibility but… i've seen ability collisions before, but they've never been strong enough to literally cause a field to collapse." Yama noted, scratching his head. Grey nodded, unsure of what to do next. "Did anyone else notice something, just before the field collapsed?". "Like what?" Yui asked, unsure of what he was referring to. "Yeah, just before the field broke…" Kai began, holding a hand to his forehead. "I felt something, saw something, like a shockwave or… I dunno…". "You alright?" Yui asked, looking at Kai, who was gripping his forehead. "I dunno, that lightwave just gave me an instant headache, hehe" Kai said, chuckling a little. "Grey, you wanna finish the brawl later man?" he asked, kneeling down and searching through his bag. "Sure." Grey responded, feeling a bit woozy himself from the light. He also didn't want to resume brawling, mainly due to a headache of his own developing, but also for the fact that their audience was faltering, with many people leaving with similar symptoms. "Oh yeah, you guys wanna go to the park later?" Yui asked, seemingly excited. "The ice cream truck is gonna be there!". "The 200 Flavours one?" Kai asked, taking a drink from his water bottle. "Yeah! Wanna do Ice Cream and Brawl?" she responded, zipping her hoodie closed and picking up her school bag.

"Heck yeah!"

"sure."

"Alrighty!

"Okay! See you guys around 5:00?"

The group agreed and went their separate ways. Greyson went home to grab food, Kai traveled home to let his fosters know he wasn't dead, Yama traveled back and swiftly completed his homework, and Yui dropped by her place of work quickly to chat. The day was rather mundane in all honesty, aside from the field collapse that is, and it seemed everything was going well.

" **I was so close…** "

 _It continued flying through the portal, feelings its body slowly degrading into attribute energy, incapable of settling on any one form. It felt as its body slowly converted down into its smaller form, all the while it only felt agonizing pain…_

" **I'm… I'm gonna kill whoever caused this when I get out…** "

 _It felt tired, as if its energy had been drained by its transformation process, it felt pressure as it entered this new world._

 **"I'm… I'm gonna…"**

 **"I'M GOING TO KILL THEM ALL!"**

5:00 rolled around and the brawlers reassembled in one of Wardington's many park facilities, this one's centerpiece being a fountain. It was quite a large park, extending for some distance with trails and bridges winding through the area. It occasionally played host to town events, but usually it was rather quiet, making it quite popular with the bakugan crowd. Today it saw a noticeable increase in activity however, mainly due to the presence of several food trucks within its parking lot, with 200 Flavours being the one the brawlers had chosen to endorse with their hard earned currency.

"So I said: He's not an eggplant, he's just an idiot." Kai concluded, giving the rest of the crew a good chuckle. "i always did wonder what the lead up to that joke was." Yama added, taking another sample from his mint chocolate cone. "Yeah, it's actually really funny with the beginning part." Grey said, taking a sip from his slushie which was clearly empty, the child attempting to salvage all that remained. It was still relatively warm out, and the sun was beginning to descend. The group was walking around the park, intent on finishing their luxury foods and then initiating the brawl they had planned. "I'll be right back, gonna throw this out." Grey said, finally accepting that the slushie cup was empty and no more sweet goodness could be gotten from it. "And he never came back." Kai said jokingly as Grey headed off toward the fountain area, knowing there was a trashcan near there. Greyson chuckled at this, quickly scaling down the steps and onto the plaza that held the fountain, and more importantly, the trashcan. Going toward it, Grey pushed it open with his hand, preparing to put the empty cup inside before something stopped him.

A flash would be the best thing to describe what he saw. He quickly raised his head and looked around, unsure of its origin. "Huh." he said out loud, the flash reminding him of when the field collapsed earlier. "Wonder what that was…" Grey thought, depositing the cup inside the trashcan before turning to leave.

Then another flash occured.

And another.

And another.

Grey glanced around, noticing the source of these flashes, a bright white light near the top of the fountain. "What the heck…" he mumbled, covering his eyes with his arm. "What is that?!".

A small white object shot out of the light source, moving at projectile velocity. It bashed against the rim of the fountain, deflecting off and leaving a sizable dent behind.

" **GAH!** "

The white sphere bounced several times before losing the kinetic energy to do so, rolling toward Grey, lightly tapping against his foot, though he failed to notice due to being ever so slightly completely blinded. The white light dissipated shortly after, the light level of the park returning to normal under the evening sun. Grey lowered his arm, staring at where the white light had once been, now only seeing the water from the fountain spraying gracefully into the air.

"What was… What the he-"

" **Grrrrh…** "

Greyson immediately looked down to the source of the sound, seeing the small white sphere at his foot. "A bakugan?" Grey wondered out loud, leaning over and picking the small white creature up, holding it in the palm of his hands. "Never seen a bakugan like you before…" Greyson noted, observing a white colour scheme, but a lack of any visible attribute symbol. The sphere suddenly popped open, the bakugan's true form showing.

" **What… Where is… Where am I?** "

"You can talk?!" Grey asked, stunned yet also fascinated. He had heard stories of talking bakugan before, but he had never actually seen one, and had just assumed they were just unfounded rumours. " **I asked you a question-** " the bakugan began before pausing, looking over itself. Its body had been completely changed, the being only now noticing how small it was compared to the creature holding. " **Who are you? Where am I? Is this Vestroia?** " it interrogated. His voice was aggressive, intimidating, weirdly so for a creature so small. "Well, uh…" Greyson scratched his head with one of his hands, unsure of exactly how he should answer these questions. "Well my name's Greyson, and you're not in… Vestroia?". " **WHERE AM I THEN?!** " the bakugan countered, angry. "Okay, uh, first off, please calm down. Uh, you're in Wardington." Grey replied. "Planet Earth ring a bell?".

The bakugan stewed for a moment, mumbling to itself, to low for Greyson to hear.

"YO, GREY, YOU ALRIGHT MAN?"

Grey turned his head, Kai and the others heading toward him. The bakugan in his hands also saw them, clamping shut in response. It was already confused, and the introduction of more of these creatures was likely not going to help his situation. "We saw that light, are you okay?" Yui asked, Greyson turning to face them. "What's that?" Kai added, looking at the bakugan in Grey's hands. Grey looked down, noticing how the creature had shut itself in its sphere form. "Uh, well…" he began, trying to think of how to relay the events that had occured in a meaningful way. "Well you saw that light right? Well, this little guy came flying out of that, and, here's the thing, he freaking spoke to me! Like, words, he talked to me!" he explained, excited. "Wait, seriously?" Yui asked, looking down at the ball in his Grey's hands. "i've heard of talking bakugan but i thought they were just rumours…" Yama said, keenly observing the bakugan in Grey's hands. "It doesn't have an Attribute sign." Kai noted, pointing at a blank circle on the creatures wing, a location where a normal bakugan would have its attribute symbol inscribed. "You said it spoke?" Yui asked, looking back toward Grey, looking slightly doubtful, yet also excited. "Yeah." he responded. "But it locked itself closed when you guys came over.". "Hmmmmmm." Kai mumbled, wearing his doubt on his face. "You sure that light wasn't a flashbang and you don't have brain damage right now?". "Moderately confident yes." Grey replied, flicking the sphere with his free hand. "Come on, say something…".

" **Grrrrrrr.** " was heard, the creature vocalizing its frustration.

"Haha! We got a growl!" Grey said triumphantly before looking back over the group. "What do you think we should-"

"HEY NERDS!" a voice came, interrupting Grey's inquisition for guidance. The group cast their gaze over, finding Shuji, a brawler and professional not a nice guy walking towards them, accompanied by his younger brother and sub-not a nice guy Akira next to him. "What are you kids up to?".

"Oh, you know…" Grey began, thinking of an excuse. "What're you doing?" Kai asked, crossing his arms and turning toward Shuji, to the relief of Greyson. "My brother was gonna battle some kid, but he never showed." Akira explained, sticking his hands in his pockets. "i still don't think they're biologically related…" Yama mumbled, triggering a few stifled chuckles. "What are you doing, huddled in a circle like that, huh?" Shuji asked, crossing his arms to match Kai, looking nowhere near as cool. "Oh, you know, Grey found a bakugan and now we're trying to find out more about it." Yui responded casually. "Yep, that's the gist of it" Grey added, looking down at the bakugan, still clamped closed. "You got a new bakugan, huh?" Shuji asked, the cogs of his mind turning. "i think we all know where this is going…" Yama mumbled, continuing to eat his ice cream. "Well then Greyson or whatever your name is-"

"It's is Greyson, by the way-"

"I CHALLENGE YOU, TO A BAKUGAN BRAWL!"

" **Bakugan… Brawl?** "

Greyson looked down at the sphere in his hand, everyone else in earshot also looking at it.

"So what do you say Grey? Wanna brawl?"

The bakugan in Grey's hand popped open, turning around and looking up at Grey's face longingly. It wanted to fight.

"Yeah…" Grey said, nodding and looking up. "I'll take you on Shuji!" he continued, drawing a field card from his pocket. Shuji grinned in response, also pulling a field card. The rest of the brawlers gathered behind Grey, with Akira standing behind Shuji as his support. The two brawlers held out their cards in front of them, prepared.

 ** _"FIELD, OPEN!"_**

The two cards glowed as the attribute circle formed on the ground below them, spinning around on its centre point as the attribute symbols rotated like hands on a clock. Time began to slow as the sounds of the park warped. A flock of pigeons started by the field opening began to slow their flight, a nearby car began traveling slower and slower as time moved to a crawl. The field began to materialize, Wardingtons evening skyline being replaced by the elemental skies of the field, and the ground turning a pure white colour in place of the park plaza's stones.

The field had formed, the brawl had begun.

Both brawlers quickly selected their gate cards, throwing them down with the ceremonious "Gate Card Set!". "You gonna start with the new guy?" Yui asked Grey, the brawlers standing behind the main combatant. "No." Grey replied. "I'm gonna see what kind of bakugan this guy uses, figure out what I should use to counter him.". Greyson quickly found the answer to his question as Shuji launched out his first bakugan.

"BAKUGAN, BRAWL!"

A Subterra Mantris found itself being launched out onto the field, landing on Shuji's card, closest to Greyson. The bakugan rolled onto the card, popping open and disappearing in an orange light, the newly formed Mantris climbing out of the gate card, gazing down upon the brawlers, likely expecting them to be intimidated.

"Neat." Grey said before looking down, looking at the bakugan he had before pulling out Griff, taking the darkus bakugan into his hand and reeling it back.

"Bakugan, brawl!"

The darkus Griffon did not have to travel far to reach its destination, standing on the card directly ahead of Grey. Griffon's ball form disappeared in a haze of darkus energy, the bakugan's battle form emerging and hovering in the air, flapping his wings and growling at Mantris.

"Subterra Mantris 270 g's, Darkus Griffon 260 g's." Grey's bakupod chimed. "Alright, I'm on his gate card so-" Grey began before being interrupted.

"GATE CARD, OPEN! FINAL JUDGEMENT!"

The card below Griffon and Mantris opened, its effects taking hold immediately. Final Judgements effect was devastating, with any bakugan that was not of the same attribute as the owner of the card having its g-power reduced to zero. Griffon was immediately weakened, quickly falling to the ground with a massive thud. "Hold on Griff!" Grey yelled, drawing an ability card whilst glancing at his bakupod.

"Subterra Mantris 270 g's, Darkus Griffon 0 g's"

"Not good…" Grey commented, quickly raising an ability card, doubting if Griff even had a chance at surviving this round.

"Ability Activate: Wing Burst!"

"ABILITY CARD ACTIVATE: WHIRLWIND"

Griffon's wings ignited under a purple light, with the bakugan barely able to launch two wing shaped projectiles off of them. These two projectiles were immediately anihilated however, with Mantris' Cross Ray projectile slicing through both of them and colliding with Griffon, causing a small explosion. "GRIFFON!" Grey yelled, concerned for his bakugan. The explosion left a large amount of dust in the air, with Griffon's ball form flying out of the debris field and toward Grey, landing and rolling several feet away from him.

"Haha! Take that punk!" Shuji yelled as Mantris reverted back to ball form, shooting back towards its owner. "You can't beat my brother, that's for sure!" Akira supported, jumping in the air as an excited child would. Grey bit his lip, moving over and picking up Griffon, gripping the bakugan tightly. "Oh, he's gonna pay for that." Kai said, encouraging his friend, causing Grey to look back, nodding. He looked back forward, noticing Shuji had already selected his next bakugan and was preparing to throw it.

"BAKUGAN, BRAWL!"

A small orange brown sphere shot out toward the remaining gate card. "TERRORCLAW, STAND!" was heard as the sphere popped open, the bakugan in question glowing in an aura of earthen energy. The ground soon split open in chunks, a crablike entity bearing massive razor sharp claws and thick armour emerging, looking down toward Grey and the rest of the brawlers. Greyson looked down toward his hand, the new, seemingly Haos bakugan sitting on his palm. "Alright buddy, let's see what you can." Grey said. "Let me at them..." was the given response. Greyson smiled for a moment, it wanted to fight, and he was okay with indulging its request, especially if it meant putting Shuji in his place. He arched his hand back, preparing to throw the enigmatic creature into battle.

"Bakugan, Brawl!"

The small sphere shot outward, landing on the gate card closest to Shuji, rolling to a stop, then opening, the small creature's eyes glowing. A vortex of attribute energy soon enveloped the being, it's sphere form disappearing in a whirlpool of elemental forces. A powered roar was heard as the newly formed dragon like creature emerged from the gate card, Terrorclaw clearly intimidated by its features. The creature bore a humanoid form, though its hands were replaced by three pointed claws, its feet, wings, and tail also weaponized. It bore a single horn on its head, facing forward, and a colour scheme of white, gold, and cobalt blue on its underside.

"That's uh…" Shuji began, at a loss for words having never seen a bakugan like this. "whoa…" Yama commented, his jaw going slack for a moment. "He looks dangerous!" Yui said in a mix of excitement and what seemed to be fear. Grey, noting everyone's surprise to the bakugans form, including his own, quickly checked his bakupad for the information on the brawl.

"Subterra Terrorclaw 270 g's, Leonidas 340 g's, Attribute Data Unavailable"

"340 gpower… Never seen a bakugan with a base level that high before…" Grey commented, looking up at the beast, claws outstretched in an attack stance. "Alright then!" he continued, excited to be using a bakugan with such a high gpower rating. "Let's see Leonidas, what kind of ability cards do you-"

" **GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAH** "

Grey looked up to see the bakugan warrior charging toward his opponent, waiting for no authority on his brawlers part. Terrorclaw prepared to counter Leonidas' charge, claws facing in an attack position, though it did little to deter the charging draconian. As Leonidas got close, Terrorclaw sprung his attack, slashing as the bakugan with its claws, nearly dumbfounded as the attack was dodged entirely. His enemy swerved underneath his claw attack, spinning itself into a flip before kicking Terrorclaw into the air. "Whoa!" Grey exclaimed, stunned at the pure power of the bakugan in question. " **Hehehe… HAHAHA!** " Leonidas cackled, using his powerful legs to eject himself off the ground and toward his now airborne target, intent on continuing his brutalization of Terrorclaw, helpless to stop it. "Hold on Terrorclaw!" Shuji yelled, preparing to pull an ability card.

But it was too late.

Leonidas performed a mid air flip, sending a wind blade kick down into Terrorclaw's skull, a teeth grinding crunching noise being heard. The subterra bakugan was sent flying back down to the ground, smashing into the gate card and sending a cloud of dirt and dust into the air. Leonidas followed suit, laughing wildly as he dive bombed back down toward his disabled foe, soon disappearing into the debris cloud, claws in attack position.

 _ **"SHHHHHHK"**_

The sound made everyone wince. It was shortly followed by a second noise, that of Terrorclaw returning to ball form, shooting out of the dust field and back toward Shuji, who made no attempt to catch it. Grey simply stood there, shocked by the brutality he had just experienced, never having seen a bakugan behave this violently.

"Subterra Terrorclaw Defeated, Winner of this round is Greyson" his bakupod chimed.

Greyson took a step forward as the debris cloud began to clear, the silhouette of Leonidas soon becoming visible. The dust soon settled, providing a visual on the bakugan, who stood hunched over, looking down at where his opponent once was, claws in an almost grabbing position, Leonidas looking at them as if they had been soaked in blood. The bakugan made eye contact with Grey, who only saw one thing in those eyes:

Pure Rage.

Leonidas' body quickly converted back into ball form, shooting back at the brawler, who caught his new form somewhat clumsily. "What the heck was that?" Grey inquired, looking down at the bakugan psychopath in his hands. "A "brawl" as you put it." he responded, looking up at Greyson with little remorse. "Brawl? You looked like you were trying to murder him!". "I won, didn't I?". Greyson looked up as the previously unused gate card evaporated. Leonidas, despite his methods, had indeed won the fight, and without any assistance at that. "Fair…" Grey admitted after a deep breath, looking toward Shuji, who was looking rather steamed, pulling out a new gate card.

"GATE CARD, SET! BAKUGAN, BRAWL!"

Shuji threw down his gate card and bakugan in quick succession, the terrain card just having finished expanding by the time his subterra combatant had hit the ground. A Subterra Fear Ripper popped open on the card, soon being lost in a spiral of earthen energy. Two massive claws emerged from the gate card, pulling the bakugan out of the terrain and into the field, staring down his foes. "A Fear Ripper, huh." Grey noted, checking his bakupod. "Subterra Fear Ripper, 280 g's." it chimed in its typical monotonous voice. "It's on his gate card too…" he mumbled. "I don't have anything that can overpower him except…". Grey looked down at the brightly coloured Leonidas, hesitant to use him again due to his brutality in the previous match. Greyson had to consider his options carefully

"What's wrong, you scared?!" Shuji taunted, crossing his arms.

"Here we go…" Kai mumbled, smiling. If there was one thing the brawlers knew not to do, it was to challenge Grey's ego.

"Oh, you're gonna be scared in a minute big boy…" Grey mumbled, gripping Leonidas. " **Hehehe, YES!** " the bakugan exclaimed as Greyson arched him arm backward.

"Bakugan, Brawl!"

Leonidas shot out, landing on the same gate card as Fear Ripper. The bakugan popped open, disappearing into his spiral of attribute power before emerging into the air in his warform, ready for combat. "Don't charge him this time, he has the upper hand!" Grey called to his beast, invoking little reaction. Leonidas replied with a simple dismissive growl, not very intent on listening. Fear Ripper was staring him down, reading him, as any predator would do to its prey. Then the subterra bakugan charged, its claws stretched out beside itself in preparation for his assault.

Fear Ripper sent two slashes forward toward Leonidas, who dodged them with little effort, using his wings to propel him over his opponent and land behind him. Fear Ripper turned to counter, only to be immediately kicked in the face by Leonidas' powerful hind leg, sending the bakugan stumbling. Leonidas then charged, sensing he had the upper hand.

"ABILITY CARD ACTIVATE: SLASH ZERO!"

Fear Ripper's intimidating claws were quickly enveloped in an orange subterra energy, extending their reach and power. The subterra bakugan quickly slashed at the incoming Leonidas, unprepared for his attack. " **DAMN IT!** " Leonidas mumbled between locked teeth, quickly sliding under the Ripper's slash attack, returning to his feet behind his subterra foe.

"Subterra Fear Ripper 360 g's, Leonidas 340 g's."

" **No way I can fight that…** " Leonidas admitted in his head, glaring at Fear Ripper, who was turning to face him. " **DAMN IT, WHAT DO I DO?!** " he thought as his opponent began charging toward him, glowing claws outstretched in attack position.

"Ability Activate!"

Leonidas glanced back to see Greyson holding a now glowing card in his hand, the energy from it transfering toward him, charging within the tips of his wings. "Rho Gun!" Grey continued, the power within Leonidas' wings reaching critical mass. " **Wha… What the hell do I do with this?!** " the draconian questioned, weary of the approaching opponent. "Shoot him with it!" Grey responded, pointing toward the still charging Fear Ripper. Leonidas' panicked face turned to a grin, the dragon looking back forward.

" **WITH PLEASURE!** "

Two beams of white light shot forward from Leonidas' wing tips, firing faster than any bakugan could reasonably dodge. The projectiles collided with Fear Ripper, who attempted to block them via the use of its giant hands. The Rho Gun's projectile nullified Slash Zero's power on contact, the orange aura over the subterra bakugan's claws dissipating near instantly.

"Subterra Fear Ripper 280 g's" Shuji's bakupod chimed. " **That's more like it…** " Leonidas mumbled, grinning intensely. "Yeah, that's how we do it!" Grey yelled, jumping in the air and pointing toward Fear Ripper, who was still getting up after recovering from Rho Gun's impact. Leonidas glanced back at him for a moment; maybe the child would be useful to him after all. Shuji growled, realizing how powerful the newfound bakugan really was. "C'mon bro! Step up your game!" Akira yelled at Shuji despite being only a few feet away from him. "Oh, I'll step it up alright!" Shuji replied angrily, watching as Grey and his beast resumed their seriousness, waiting for the brawl to continue.

"Take this, GATE CARD OPEN: SUBTERRA!"

The gate card beneath the bakugan quickly began shining for a moment before sandy terrain replaced it, the terrain of the battlefield changing from the white matter it usually was to a desert environment (complete with pyramids in the distance.). Fear Ripper began glowing as a result of the terrain, empowered by its effects. "Subterra Fear Ripper 430 g's, Leonidas 340 g's" Grey's bakupod chimed, causing him to waver. "Thats over 100 g's…" he mumbled. Leonidas was also intimidated, sensing the power increase that Fear Ripper had underwent. He glanced back at Grey, who had the look of someone who didn't know what to do next. " **Guess it's my turn to show off.** " he said, Fear Ripper beginning to run toward him, ready to attack.

Leonidas crossed his arms over his chest, inhaling for a moment as power charged inside of him. His eyes glowed, the bakugan swinging his arms out and roaring, a small shockwave being sent out across the field, causing Fear Ripper to stop in his tracks. Beginning from his chest, the colour of the bakugan's hide began changing rapidly. A wave of terran colour spread over his body, his golden trimmings remaining the same while his white hide turned a shade of brown, his cobalt underside turning an even darker version. Leonidas concluded his pallete swap with a second roar, even louder and more aggressive than the first, all eyes on him.

"He just…" Grey began before his bakupod interrupted via its incessant beeping, leading him to quickly glance down at it. "Recalculating… Subterra Fear Ripper 430 g's, Subterra Leonidas 490 g's." it said, adjusting for the new development. "He can change his attribute…" Grey said to himself. "You can change your attribute?!" he called again, Leonidas grinning in response. " **You're not the only one with a few tricks kid.** " the newly subterra bakugan responded, looking straight forward. Greyson grinned, looking back forward toward Fear Ripper.

Shuji meanwhile, was not in such a position of power. "How can he…" he began, trailing off as Akira interrupted him. "C'mon bro, you gotta win!" he whined, bringing Shuji back into the correct brawling headspace. "Yeah!" the big brother replied, quickly pulling out another ability card.

"ABILITY CARD ACTIVATE: EARTHEN ENFORCEMENT!"

Fear Ripper began glowing in a subterra light as the attribute power from Shuji's ability card transferred to his bakugan, empowering by 100 units of energy. Now outclassing Leonidas in terms of gpower, Fear Ripper charged once more, claws at the ready. The subterra dragon glanced back at Grey for a moment, who nodded, quickly pulling a new ability card.

"Ability Activate: Theta Claw!"

The now glowing orange card in Greyson's hand split in two, its energy shooting toward Leonidas's hands. The power of the card quickly enveloped his claws, causing them to extend to over twice their original size. Leonidas marveled at his new weaponry for a moment before assuming a battle stance, ready for Fear Rippers attack. The subterra foe launched itself at Leo, attempting to perform a cross slash. Fear Ripper was somewhat startled as the newly subterra bakugan caught its claws in his own glowing ones, holding them back. Theta Claw had made contact.

"Subterra Fear Ripper 480 g's, Subterra Leonidas 540 g's" the bakupod chimed. "Perfect" Grey said, looking back up at his battling beast. Leonidas quickly gripped into Fear Ripper's massive hands, digging his energy claws into them, grinning. The draconian bakugan proceeded to jump up slightly, then swing both of its legs into its opponent, letting go of the bakugans claws, letting it go flying. Fear Ripper landed near the edge of the gate card, just short of a ring out and crushing Shuji and Akira to death.

"Let's finish this!"

" **RIGHT!** "

Leonidas shot into the air as Greyson pulled his finale card out, preparing to raise it. On the other side of the field, Fear Ripper layed on the ground for a moment before "encouragement" told it to get up. The subterra bakugan rolled itself over, pushing itself into a stand using its massive hands. Fear Ripper looked back toward its opponent, currently hovering high in the sky.

"ABILITY ACTIVATE: ALPHA BLASTER!"

Leonidas's head arched upward as an electrical charge built up around his muzzle, energy from the ability card gathering in preparation for his final attack. Leonidas quickly shot his head down and opened his jaws, a massive orb of energy formed within his mouth. The orb fired, a white, beam-like projectile launching out of the bakugan's mouth, his entire body pushed back slightly from the recoil. The energy projectile traveled fast, aimed directly at Fear Ripper, and soon made contact. A massive white energy explosion erupted from the impact point, blinding everyone on the field as a wave of light cascaded across the still sandy environment.

And then, there was quite.

Grey opened his eyes, seeing only white, the sound of the explosion messing with his hearing somewhat.

His hearing seemingly began to return as the whiteness faded, the sound of water flowing being heard, birds chirping their songs pleasing his ears. The sound of a nearby car accelerating was heard as Grey's vision fully returned.

They were standing in the park, bathing under the evening Wardington sun.

"What just…" Grey began before noticing Leonidas' brown ball form falling from the air, moving to catch it. "What the hell just happened?" Kai said, rubbing his eyes. "We're… Back in the park? Did the field collapse?" Yui asked, looking around at the pleasant scenery. "that light, it was like before…" Yama began, moving his arms away from his face, seeing Shuji on his knees, Fear Rippers ball form sitting in front of him. "I… Lost…" he said, shocked at the recent turn of events. "Wait, what?! How did you lose bro?" Akira exclaimed loudly, more concerned over his brother's brawling loss than the enigmatic event that had just occurred. Grey looked at Shuji and Akira for a moment before looking down at Leonidas, his ball form resting in his hand, the bakugan popping open and looking up at him. "I activated Alpha Blaster, you fired it, then…" Greyson said, attempting to connect the dots. His face then lit up realizing what had occured. "WE WON!" he exclaimed, jumping in the air lightly in excitement. " **Hahaha, YES!** " Leonidas responded in a less but similarly excited tone. "Thas how you do it!" Kai yelled, joining in on the celebration. "You guys were awesome!" Yui added, equally as excited. "Expertly performed" Yama noted, also joining. Greyson smiled before looking back down at Leonidas, who was now the centre of attention, and had also been celebrating up until this point. "Couldn't have done it without you dude." he said, smiling warmly. Leonidas paused his celebration for a moment, seeing that he was now centre stage, quickly clamping closed in embarrassment that he had let his serious exterior falter. "Come on bud, you know you were great!" Grey said, nudging Leonidas' subterra coloured ball form with his index finger, prompting a brief " **Hmmmph.** " from the bakugan. Even his grunt couldn't hide his satisfaction in victory.

"HEY, GREYSON!" Shuji yelled, prompting the brawlers to return to reality. "I WANT A REMATCH!". "I mean, I would but…" Grey began, feeling tired, and sensing his bakugan likely felt the same. "Well uh, my Mom said to be home by 6:00 and uh… Yeah, I'm gonna go." he continued, beginning to walk off. Shuji, disappointed at the lack of a rematch against Grey, looked toward the other brawlers, who sensed he wanted to get his payback from them.

"Uhm… Oh my gosh, it's almost 6:00? I gotta go to work!" Yui said before quickly running off despite not having a shift booked for today.

"Yeah fam, uh, I gotta go make sure my fosters don't think I've offed myself!" Kai added, also zooming off.

"i have to go make up an excuse." Yama concluded, turning and walking toward his house.

"Bye!" Akira called. Shuji was just left sitting there, dumbfounded, on his knees under the warm Wardington sun.

8:49pm. Grey had returned home after the brawl, spending some time completing homework and other menial tasks, but the majority of his spare time was spent trying to get Leonidas to speak again. None of his questions had been given answers, with the bakugan locking itself closed, only responding to questions in slightly miffed grunts. "Yeah." Grey replied into the phone, lying down on his bed. He had since switched from his outdoor clothes to a simple sleeping getup: a red tank top and plaid night pants. "He hasn't responded to a single thing I've asked." he continued, looking over toward the window sill which Leonidas' still-subterra ball form sat upon. "Have you tried hitting him with a hammer?" Kai asked, also in his night clothing, a panda onesie that he swore he didn't own.

"Kai, no…"

"I'm just saying…"

"Say no more… I think I'm gonna go to bed early anyway."

"Those brawls took a toll of you huh fam?" Kai inquired. "Yeah, they were pretty intense." Grey replied, yawning. "Alright then, see you tomorrow bro?". "Yeah, see ya cowboy." "Alright, I love you bi-" Grey hung up before Kai could finish his goodbye, going to turn his phone alarm on before placing it on the nightstand next to his bed. Grey then took a moment to look at Leonidas, still clamped shut. "You know, we make a pretty good team Leonidas." he said, knowing the bakugan could hear him. "You know some people have a certain bakugan be their guardian bakugan, their partner." Grey continued. "I think we make a good team, you're a great fighter and I'm a good strategist. We work well together.". Leonidas continued to not give off any response, leading Greyson to sigh and give in. "Alrighty then, think about it at least, sleep on it." he said before turning over, turning off the lamp light, and covering himself with a purple blanket, settling in. "Goodnight… Leo.".

Leo.

Leonidas couldn't help but feel a stir when Greyson said this, a warmth inside him. The human child had a passionate soul, he knew that.

Leonidas slowly popped open, as to not make Greyson aware that he had done so, and looked out the window, viewing the sunset in the Wardington sky. He felt, comfort. Like he was home strangely enough, knowing this was not the ultimate destination for him. He was meant for Vestroia, that was his purpose, his thoughts running back and forth before he remembered what he had saw before being shot into this world in a tiny sphere form. A bakugan, a white one, attempting to somehow interfere with one of the Vestroian Cores. His memory was foggy, and he felt quite tired after the brawl, struggling to recollect what had occured. He remembered hearing something, someone yelling. Was it the bakugan?

"This is your fault?" he said aloud to himself. What was his fault? It was that bakugan's fault more likely, they had interfered with the cores. In fact, it was likely them who caused Leonidas to be sucked into this dimension. Onto Earth, a planet inhabited by children who took his species' existence as a game. It made him angry, it made him want to vent.

But there was no point.

Leonidas stewed for a while, thinking of what his options were before looking back at Grey. The battle from earlier. It offered relief, a point to release the anger built up inside of himself. Maybe staying with the human child, "brawling" with him, would be beneficial, at least until he found a way to make it back to Vestroia. Yes. This would be his plan. But for now, he would sleep. For the first time in fact since his birth only some time prior.

Leonidas went to sleep, dreaming of flying in warm Vestroian skies.

" _This is his fault…_ "

* * *

And now, a preview of our next episode: Je Ne Parle Pas Francais

"I TOLD YOU I DON'T SPEAK FRENCH!"


	2. E2: Je Ne Parle Pas Francais

**Even in the anime I felt this episode jumped around a lot, so I decided to add locational cues to assist in not saying the word meanwhile every 5 seconds. Want extra fun? Imagine the Law & Order, Special Victims Unit sound every time you read one. Enjoy!**

* * *

 _ **7:15AM: Noboru Residence**_

Leonidas split open immediately, an ear piercing sound disturbing him from his slumber. He quickly cast his gaze across the terrain, attempting to find its source. " **What… WHO IS THAT-** "

Leonidas ceased his defensive formation, realizing where he was as his memory played catch up. He was in Greyson's "bedroom", sitting on the "windowsill", this was the alien terrain. And the noise, a repeating, incessant tone. Leonidas looked over to where it originated, seeing the screen on a rectangular shaped box light up. " **Alarm…** " he mumbled, reading the text despite its long distance relative to the Bakugans size. He continued watching as Greyson reached out and took hold of the box, pressing a button on it and causing the noise to cease. Grey brought the box, which he would later learn was called a phone, toward his face, tapping his thumb against it, the screen reacting to his inputs. Greyson continued this for about thirty second before finally getting out of bed, stretching and glancing toward Leonidas, who quickly shut his Subterra ball form closed in response. Grey stared for a moment before shrugging, dismissing what he thought he saw, and exiting the room. "Good morning Grey." a more feminine voice came. "Mornin' Mom, hey Dad." he heard Greyson respond. The conversation quickly devolved into smalltalk, Leonidas ceasing to eavesdrop as his mind wandered elsewhere. These creatures seemed incredibly social, contrasting the only behavior he knew; Violence.

"Yeah, he's a bit… Edgy though…" Leonidas heard, speculating as to what this word meant.

 _ **7:29AM: Hikari Residence**_

Yui had just finished serving her two little sister's breakfast when her phone vibrated on the counter, making an interesting noise as it repeatedly collided with the surface numerous times. She scooped up the cellular device, which had a cyan casing, and pushed the power button, taking a sip of her coffee as the phones screen came to life. "Hey, where should I meet you?" the message read, Yui quickly typing up a reply. "Just inside the lobby should be fine, I just need to walk my sisters to school and then I'll come." was the response she composed. About half a minute later the reply came: "Okay :)".

 _ **8:25AM: Wardington Composite **_

"Still hasn't said a word huh?" Kai asked, struggling to insert a straw into the correct spot of a juice box. "Nope. Unless you count slightly angry sounding grunts as an answer, then in which case… You know." Grey said, observing Leonidas, who was sitting in his hand in ball form, clamped closed. "i mean, if I was launched out of a magic white light and made a dent in a concrete fountain on the way out, i'd probably not be so inclined on conversation." Yama reasoned, taking Kai's juice box and impaling the straw into its side before handing it back to him. "He seemed pretty talkative during our encounter with Shuji yesterday, he seemed to enjoy it actually." Grey replied, returning the Bakugan to a small felt satchel he used to store his beasts. "Enjoyed is an… Interesting word for what happened…" Kai responded, drinking his juice contently.

"Hallo!" came a familiar voice in a familiar tone. The trio looked up to see Yui walking toward them, accompanied by a girl they didn't recognize. "Brawlers…" Yui began, motioning to her accompaniment. "This is Alice, she's a transfer student!". Alice stepped forward, giving a light wave. "Hello!" she said, smiling toward the group.

Alice wore a green top and white shorts, covered in part by an open yellow dress, accompanied by a red wristband on her left arm and shoes matching the palette of her outfit. "It's nice to meet you all." she continued, standing next to Yui. Her hair was auburn, almost orange, left to flow behind her. "Hey, my name's Greyson!" Grey said, returning the wave. "Name's Kai." the tall one continued, drinking from the sideways **juice box**. "i'm yama." the shortest of the bunch concluded. "We call ourselves the Battle Brawlers." Yui boasted, putting her hands on her hips. "Alice here is also into Bakugan.". "Well, I'm not really into battling, but I have done a bunch of research into Bakugan." Alice corrected, joining her hands in front of her. "Research huh." Grey wondered before a thought entered his mind. "Hey Alice, have you ever seen a Bakugan like this before?" he asked, showing the still subterra Leonidas to her. Alice kneeled slightly, observing the sphere. "No, I don't think so…" she responded. "Do you know what it's name is?". "Yeah, Leonidas." Greyson replied. "He can actually talk, like speak actual words I mean.". "A talking Bakugan?" Alice wondered aloud, her thought process being shattered by the sound of the school bell going off.

" _BUNG BUNG BUNG BUNG"_

"No, I've never heard of a Bakugan like that before… Sorry." Alice said, her smile faltering. "Meh, don't worry about it." Grey said, picking up his bag as the brawlers readied to part to their classes. "Plenty of time to crack this knucklehead." he continued, starting to walk off alongside Kai and Yama. "Later Yui, Alice.". "See ya guys!" Yui replied, guiding Alice to her next class.

 _ **3:09PM [Technically]: Wardington Composite [Also Technically]**_

"Ability Activate: Theta Claw!"

Leonidas continued his stranglehold on the Darkus Juggernoid's head, using his clawed feet to restraint the Bakugan in place as the energy from Grey's ability card shifted to his own appendages. His claws extended under a view of aqua energy, his attribute having previously changed to match one of Shuji's previous cards, the brawler having switched his attribute to Aquos to negate a Groundbreaker. " **HAHAHAHA** " Leonidas cackled, driving his newly weaponized claws into the opponent Juggernoid's shell, piercing it, causing the Bakugan to roar in pain. Leon wasted no time, using his grip on the Juggernoid to pick it up via the force provided by his wings, flipping the Darkus Bakugan around and sending it flying toward Shuji. The Bakugan was seemingly about to crush him, but it quickly returned to its sphere form before impact, a small black and purple ball bouncing on the ground near him.

"AND THAT'S A RING OUT, S-AQUOS LEONIDAS IS THE WINNER!" Yama announced, gesturing to the last Bakugan left standing, who quickly returned to ball form. "That was… Brutal bro!" Kai said to Greyson, who caught Leonidas in his hand. "He's really aggressive isn't he?" Alice noted, looking at Leonidas' newly blue ball form. Leonidas was indeed able to switch attributes, though not in the way some Aquos Bakugan were rumoured to be able to. Instead, Leo's attribute switches were more permanent, not changing back to normal after a battle concluded, as if the changes were not so much him altering just his attribute, but something else entirely. "Yeah." Greyson responded, the field collapsing as reality returned to normal, the school atrium replacing the white terrain and elemental skylight. "Only time he speaks is during battles too…". "he seemed to be having a little bit too much fun there…" Yama noted, walking over toward the group. "I mean, he did win." Grey replied, looking down at the closed bluish sphere. "Didn't you, yeah, yes you did!" he continued, talking to Leonidas as if he was a child. " **Grrrrrr, cease!** " he muttered, clearly irritated by Greyson's tone of voice. "Hey guys, we got a word out of him!" Kai joked, sticking his hands into his pockets. "What are you guys doing now?" he asked, looking at the dissipating student body. "I was gonna show Alice around town." Yui replied, looking to her new companion, who smiled and nodded in response. "i'm gonna head home." Yama said, putting his megaphone into his bag and zipping it closed. "Same here." Grey said, pocketing the Aquos Leonidas. "Same bros." Kai replied, adjusting the strap on his bag.

"See y'all around!"

"See ya later!"

"bye."

 _ **5:07PM: Wardington Park **_

"And this is the place where Greyson found Leonidas yesterday." Yui said, gesturing toward the fountain, which still had a dent in it from Leonidas' impact. Yui had been giving Alice a guided tour of Wardington, electing to do so as she was also responsible for her room and board. The two had been all over town, and soon they ended up in the park where yesterday's brawl introduced them to Leonidas' ferocity. "Did he make that dent?" Alice asked, pointing toward a warp in the concrete fountains rim. Yui look over to where Alice was pointing, stopping for a second. "I… Don't think so?" she replied, genuinely unsure. If a Bakugan hit concrete at the amount of force necessary to make that kind of dent, it was doubtful if they would live to tell the tail. Nevertheless, the two continued walking along, eventually happening upon a small brick structure; a bathroom to be exact. "Hey, is it alright if I just pop in here for a second?" Alice asked, motioning toward the building. "Sure, no problem. I'll wait out here." Yui replied, her companion heading into the bathroom. Yui quickly pulled out her phone, scrolling through her social media as people tend to do. She felt the hairs on her neck stand up all of a sudden, a strong breeze blowing through the area, sending leaves cascading across the ground. A coldness grew within her, a sense that something wasn't right. Yui knew what she had to do.

She zipped up her hoodie.

Yui continued scrolling through her feed even as the wind continued to blow with force, completely unaware of the presence near her. She glanced up for a moment, noticing the figure standing there, taking her by surprise.

"Whoa!" she exclaimed, jumping. A person had seemingly materialized close to her, and was standing there ominously, their blonde hair spiked upward and their eyes covered by a mask. Their outfit consisted of what seemed to be a short sleeved lab coat with various belts and studs across it, paired with a pair of purple trousers and black boots. "Yui Hiraki, was it?" the figure asked, a field card flipping out of his sleeve and into his hand. "Y-yeah, what's it to you?" she responded, unnerved at the enigmatic man's arrival. The figure raised his gate card, holding it out in front of himself and grinning. "Oh, so you wanna battle huh?" Yui asked, pulling her own field card in response. "F-fine then, I'll take you on!" she said, raising her own field card.

" _ **BAKUGAN, FIELD OPEN!"**_

The attribute wheel quickly formed beneath the brawlers as time began to slow around them, the two disappearing into the Bakugan field, ready to brawl.

 _ **5:11PM: Wardington Park**_

Reality returned to normal, Yui collapsing onto her knees. "T-terror…" she mumbled as the field fully collapsed and time returned to its normal flow, stunned by what she had witnessed. Her opponent only chuckled, grinning sickly before beginning to walk away. "I didn't catch your name…" Yui called, looking up at the figure. "I never said it." he responded. "Call me Masquerade.". Yui's head sank, her body feeling heavy.

Alice pushed open the door to the bathroom, walking outside. "I'm back, sorry if I took a while-". She paused for a moment before immediately running over to her friend.

"Yui, are you okay?"

 _ **6:26PM: Noboru Residence **_

Kai and Yama had already joined in on the video call, eager to see what Greyson had prepared. Grey was at his desk, having promised the brawlers that he had finally developed a method for getting Leonidas to speak outside of battle. Kai and Yama starred on intently as Grey brought out the weapons that would end Leo's silence once and for all. "Behold!" Greyson announced theatrically, presenting the still Darkus Leonidas and, a toothbrush. "grey, that is a toothbrush." Yama responded, incapable of seeing the genius of the all attribute brawler.

"No, it is The Lance of Silence's Demise!"

"no, it's a toothbrush."

"LANCE OF SILENCE'S DEMISE!"

"Grey, do you wanna play MineKraft or is this gonna go on for a while?" Kai inquired, sipping on his drink. "Alright alright, watch." Grey replied, moving Leonidas in front of his with one hand and moving the toothbrush with the other, starting to brush the Bakugan. " **Grrrrrh.** " was the initial given response, but Greyson continued, winking at the webcam and increasing the intensity of his brushing. " **Hmmmph, cease…** " Leonidas mumbled, raising Yama and Kai's interest in the manner. Grey began brushing the Darkus Bakugan even faster now.

" **No, stop, Gah, THAT TICKLES, CEASE, STOP IT, STAHP!** "

By now the trio of boys were all laughing, Leonidas still refusing to open his ball form, his protests muffled in a way that anyone with a heart would find funny. " **OKAY, okay!** " he said, giving in and popping open. " **I'll speak, just stop with that awful,** _ **awful**_ **device**.". "Yeah, screw Krest Pro Health, amirite boys?" Kai joked, getting a laugh out of Yama. Grey was about to continue his interrogation of the Darkus Bakugan when Yui joined the call. "Oh hey Yui-" Grey began, pausing when he saw her face. She looked empty, like she had been crying almost. "Oh jesus, Yui, are you okay?" Kai inquired, peering closer at the screen. "S-something…" she began, quite. "yui, speak up please…" Yama requested meekly, also worried.

"S-something happened when we were at the park…"

 _ **6:42PM: Noboru Residence **_

Yui had explained everything that had happened, the park, the figure, the events of the brawl, and how she had lost her Pyrus Terrorclaw to the enigmatic brawler.

"So Terrorclaw was just sucked into a portal?" Greyson inquired, his hand on his chin as he concentrated. "Yeah…" Yui replied, looking somewhat better. She took a sip of the tea Alice had made, it doing wonders to calm her down. "It's not just Terrorclaw being sucked away that's bothering me… That portal was just so… It felt like it was evil.". "and you didn't get terrorclaw back after the brawl?" Yama asked, seemingly taking notes. "No… He's just… Gone…" she replied, Alice trying to comfort her. "Well this bites, nobody should be able to just come out and take peoples Bakugan like that!" Grey said, raising his voice a little. "yui, if you don't mind me asking, what did you say the guys name was?" Yama asked. "Oh, it was… Masquerade, yeah." Yui said, finishing the tea. "Sounds French…" Kai said. "I don't speak French." Grey added. "Yui." Yama began.

"You aren't alone."

"What do you mean?" Yui asked, looking up with renewed interest. "well i searched up masquerade and there are brawlers everywhere saying basically the same thing that you just said; masked creep stole my Bakugan, masquerade took my Falconeer, french baguette-face stole robbed me…" Yama relayed, looking back into his webcam. "whoever this guy is, he's targeting everyone.". "Well we can't just let some masked maniac go around terrorizing people and stealing their Bakugan!" Kai said, slamming his hand into his desk. "Yeah, especially not when they attacked one of our friends!" Grey added. "Did someone seriously call him a baguette-face?" Alice mumbled from the background, confused.

" **I SAY WE FIGHT HIM!** "

Grey looked over, Leonidas' ball form open and the creature inside angry. "I AGREE WITH THE MURDERBALL!" Yama yelled, also getting riled up. "Alright then Brawlers! Let's take this creep down!" Grey said, making a fist.

"Erm, how do you plan on doing that?" Alice interjected, standing slightly behind Yui on her webcam. "Well, she does have a point…" Yui added after a moment of silence. "We don't know where Masquerade is.". "Les set a trap then." Kai proposed, interlocking his fingers and stretching. "Lure 'em out.". "How are we gonna do that?" Yui asked, now fully engaged with the proposed operation. "internet's a beautiful place yui." Yama said, typing away on his keyboard. "All we need is bait."

Everyone in the web call looked toward Grey. "I seem to have the small feeling that I'm going to be playing that part…" he said, sighing.

 _ **8:18PM: Noboru Residence**_

"Heys Masquerade, how's about a lil' battle, huh?" Grey said into the webcam. "Awww." Alice said aloud. "It is kinda cute." Yui added, frustrating Greyson. "It shouldn't be cute, it should be threatening, agh!" he yelled, trying to think of some other way of articulating the taunt.

" **This is pointless…** " Leonidas mumbled, rolling along the desk in his ball form. " **You should just hunt him down yourself and face him one on one.** ". Greyson looked down at the darkus Bakugan, who popped open and looked up to match his gaze. "That sounds like an awful idea!" Grey responded, sitting himself into his chair and spinning around. " **Traps can fail, force tends not to.** " Leonidas replied, prompting Greyson to right himself. "You know what your problem is?" he began, standing up and walking toward the desk. "You're coming at this as a fighter whose never lost a fight and is used to being overpowered. At some point you're going to face an opponent too strong to beat with brute force and you're going to have to learn to use strategy." he concluded, standing over Leonidas. " **Fat chance…** " the draconian mumbled before Greyson promptly scooped him up, grabbed the Lance of Silence's Demise, and began brushing the lizard, who protested audibly. "Maybe if I put on an accent it would be better…" Grey wondered aloud, ignoring Leonidas' demands to be put down or for the brush to be moved slightly to the right.

 _ **1:37AM: #$# *$# #*'! #*$ * &**_

"Hey Masquerade, I'm challenging you to a brawl! If I win, you stop running around stealing people's Bakugan! Meet me under the bridge on Palmdale Avenue at 5:00, that is if you're brave enough to show up and face my one of a kind Bakugan!"

Masquerade smirked behind the screen of his monitor, it being the only light source in the room. "This might actually be fun…" he noted, the monitor's recording reflecting off of his mask.

 _ **5:00PM: Palmdale Underbridge**_

The brawlers all moved as a single unit, traveling along the underside of the bridge where the railroad track once ran through. Greyson, Kai, and Yama had headed toward the brawling site, Yui and Alice remaining away from the fight; they didn't want her doing anything rash, as she was prone to do. She also had a job, an added layer of complication. Some might have mistaken them for a gang, an oddly varied one at that. As they got closer to their destination, Kai called something out, seeing someone in the distance. "There's one, no, two people, dead ahead." he said, pointing toward the two figures down the way. "did masquerade bring backup?" Yama asked, unable to see as far ahead as Kai. "I don't think… Oh dear christ…". Greyson and Yama quickly also picked up the pieces based on the colours of the figures ahead of them, yellow with a hint of orange and tan, and a smaller one, mainly in green. "It's Shuji…" Grey mumbled, knowing this meant trouble for their operation.

"Hey nerds!" Shuji called as the brawlers approached. "Guess Masquerade isn't coming huh?". "Shuji, get lost." Kai said, his unwavering voice almost intimidating the bully. "No way man, not until I get revenge on this punk for defeating my Bakugan!" he yelled back, pointing at Greyson (who had a look of complete and utter disinterest on his face). "Shuji, I would rather elect literally anyone else on the planet fight you right now instead of me." he said, resting his hands in the pockets of his track pants.

"I can help with that!" a familiar voice came from behind Shuji and Akira. The two parted, revealing Yui to be standing behind them, decked out in her brawling gear. "Yui!" the brawlers exclaimed as she walked between Shuji and Akira toward them, spinning around and facing the former. "i thought you were at home…" Yama said. "I'm getting my pathos one way or another." she responded, pulling out a field card. "I accept your challenge Shuji!". Shuji, who was dumbfounded at this turn of events, quickly reoriented himself. "Fine then, first I'll beat the blonde brawler, then I'll take down Grey Hair and his pet lizard!" he responded, pulling a field card of his own. Greyson was tempted to stop Yui, but something told him not to. Besides, if Yui won the brawl, he wouldn't have to battle Shuji, a win win scenario. The two brawlers had their field cards ready. She quickly glanced back at him, looking for a response. Grey nodded; permission to engage; granted.

" _ **BAKUGAN, FIELD OPEN!"**_

Grey walked forward as reality began to warp, putting a hand on Yui's shoulder, causing her to glance back. "Yui…" he began, time slowing further as the sounds of automobiles were distorted and overpowered. "Kick his as-" Grey's voice was drowned out by the field formation, but Yui got the picture. She nodded as the field fully materialized, dirty ground and a concrete ceiling replaced by flat white terrain and a multicoloured sky.

"GATE CARD, SET!"

Two gate cards went flying across the field, landing at the opposite extremes of each other and expanding, bridging the gap between Yui and Shuji. Both brawlers quickly selected their next Bakugan, warey of each others actions. Shuji was the first to act, quickly tossing up a Bakugan.

"BAKUGAN, BRAWL!"

A ventus sphere shot out, landing on Yui's gate card closest to Shuji, bouncing to a stop and opening. Falconeer's eyes glowed for a moment as a torrent of wind came spiraling upward, the Bakugan's battle form rising up within the tempest. The windstorm dissipated, revealing the flying Bakugan, hovering majestically above the terrain and glaring down at Yui, who grinned back. "My turn!" she yelled, pulling out another gate card and launching it. "Gate Card Set!" she continued, the card landing and expanding next to her existing one where the ventus Falconeer currently resided. Yui then took hold of a red sphere, arching her hand back and launching it.

"Bakugan Brawl!"

"Hynoid Stand!" was her next line, the Bakugan popping open and its eyes glowing, a ring of fire forming around it as it converted into its battle form. The Pyrus Hynoid pulled itself out of the ground, standing on its hind legs and howling. "Nice try!" Shuji mocked, pulling out an ability card.

"ABILITY CARD ACTIVATE: JUMP OVER!"

A hurricane of ventus wind rapidly formed around Falconeer, the funnel snaking its way into the air and pointing to the gate card beside it. The ventus creature quickly flew up the wind tunnel, emerging on Hynoid's gate card high above the Pyrus Bakugan. "You thought you could escape my Falconeer huh?" Shuji remarked, smirking.

"Gate Card Open! Lock Gravity!"

The smirk was quickly wiped off of Shuji's face as the gate card beneath Hynoid began glowing. Falconeer, previously airborne, was immediately rocketed toward the ground as its effects took hold; Lock Gravity's effect being that it grounds all Bakugan on the gate card to ground combat. The ventus Bakugan quickly slammed into the terrain as Hynoid prepared to attack, glancing at Yui preparing her next card.

"Ability Activate! Jackal Strike!"

Hynoid immediately charged forward, his claws glowing with pyrus energy, extending to form sharp knives. Falconeer managed to stand up for a moment, but did not have enough time to perceive the threat and counter it, the Pyrus Bakugan slashing it with his flaming claws, causing Falconer to return back to ball form near instantly, shooting back at Shuji. "What was that? I didn't quite hear you!" Yui mocked, watching as Hynoid howled, proud of his victory before he returned to his brawler in ball form. Shuji growled in response, irritated. "Oh yeah, you think you're so tough, try this on for size!" he yelled, pulling out a second Bakugan.

"BAKUGAN, BRAWL!"

A ventus Gargonoid shot out, landing on Shuji's card just ahead of Yui, popping open and vanishing into a similar gust as before. The Bakugan emerged, its gargoyle like features true to its name, staring down at Yui in expectation of fear. Yui shivered for a moment before looking down at the Hynoid in her hand. "You did great!" she said, nuzzling the open Bakugan for a moment before returning him to her belt, revealing her next beast in the form of a Haos sphere, reeling her arm back in preparation to launch.

"Bakugan Brawl!"

Yui's own Falconeer went flying out toward Gargonoid's card, landing with a bounce and opening, a hurricane of light emerging from its landing zone instead of one of wind. The Bakugan vanished into this vortex of Haos power, emerging as it dissipated in an elegant battle form. "Falconeer, stand! Take him down!" the Haos Pyrus brawler yelled, pointing a hand toward Shuji's Bakugan. Falconeer obeyed, quickly beginning to propel herself toward Shuji's ventus beast.

"Ventus Gargonoid 250 g's, Haos Falconeer 240 g's." were the current readings according to Yui's bakupod. She glanced at Shuji for a moment, a look of concern crossing her face. "Is he gonna…" Yui began, being interrupted as Shuji initiated his counter attack.

"Hahaha, GOTCHA! ABILITY CARD ACTIVATE: SPIRIT WIND!"

Gargonoid swung both its arms forth, a violent gust of ominous wind blowing forth, quickly making contact with Falconeer, weakening the Bakugan. Falconeer's gpower began to drop, with Shuji's bakupod quickly updating him on the result of his ability, his own Bakugan already making an aerial advance. "Haos Falconeer power decrease to 140 g's" it chimed, its owner not bothering to look down at it. Shuji, despite being slightly more cautious due to his previous error, was not one to learn from mistakes, taunting her with a typical: "Ha, what trick are you gonna pull now little girl-" before being once again interrupted, Gargonoid still charging at Falconeer.

"Ability Activate! Haos Switch!" Yui roared, raising both her hands up, a card in one and another Haos Bakugan in another. The card glowed, it's power jumping over to Falconeer, who immediately returned to ball form upon contact, zipping back as Yui's second Haos sphere shot out to her Bakugan's previous position. Haos Saurus stood, rather flew, into existence in a kicking position, its massive foot poised directly at the advancing Gargonoid, whose last thought before contact was likely along the lines of: "awww damn it-". Saurus collided with the ventus Bakugan, it's mass and weight compared to Gargonoid's quickly driving the pair into the terrain, the two smashing into the ground as Saurus essentially surfed the smaller Bakugan through the metaphorical dirt before eventually grinding to a halt, Shuji stumbling in shock at what had just occurred. Saurus looked down at its opponent, still conscious despite the previous event, raising his massive foot as if to stomp the Ventus creature.

"Stay down…"

Grey quickly glanced down at his pocket, assuming what he had just heard was from Leonidas, but thought against it after a moment; that voice was deeper than his own Bakugan's, much more gruff. "Somethin' wrong?" Kai asked without looking away from the brawl. "No, just thought I heard someone say something…" Grey responded, watching as the Gargonoid returned to its ball form, causing the Saurus above to stumble slightly as its centre of gravity was thrown off. Kai heard it as well, but quickly lost the thought as Saurus secured its victory, pounding its chest with one hand. "Don't get cocky or it's gonna get rocky Shuji!" Yui yelled, catching her Bakugan as it returned in ball form. "Bro, you just lost again!" Akira mentioned loudly, seemingly surprised. "Dang it, she's too smart!" Shuji responded, angry at his double loss. "She's using strategy!" his brother responded. "So?". "Disrupt it!" Akira exclaimed, clearly the smarter of the duo. "Oooooh… Right!" Shuji replied, it taking a slightly odd amount of time for him to catch up with the program. Yui was quite confident meanwhile, having her strategy planned out in her head, holding her Hynoid and Saurus in her hand, the two seemingly pulling toward each other. This fight was on her card assuming Shuji didn't put down another, and Yui estimated that she could win rather handily. She readied herself, reeling an arm back and preparing to throw.

"Bakugan Brawl: Saurus Stand!"

The Haos Rhino shot out onto the gate card, popping open on impact, a circle of light blinding the area as it concealed the stand. Saurus rose up from the impact zone, letting out a roar before staring forward, not at Shuji mind you, prepared for combat. "Oh yeah?" he replied, taking Saurus' seeming lack of notice of him as an insult. "Take this!" Shuji continued, quickly launching his final ventus Bakugan at the gate card, it mimicking the impact opening of Saurus, a windstorm whipping up as the Robotallion stood, staring down its Haos opponent with dead serious eyes. The two warriors glared at each other for a moment, the field silent for a time before combat restarted, Yui opening the gate card, which glowed in a Pyrus light.

"Gate Card Open-"

"NICE TRY!" Shuji interrupted, pulling a card of his own.

"ABILITY ACTIVATE: STORMBREAKER!"

The Ventus Robotallion was quickly immersed in a field of green energy, beginning to raise its arms above its head, hands in fists as wind energy blew around the Bakugans arms like small hurricanes. The Bakugan quickly swung them down, the gate card cracking upon contact with these projectiles, shattering like a mirror soon after. "Haos Saurus 280 g's, Ventus Robotallion 300 g's." Yui's bakupod chimed, its owner glancing down at it slightly unnerved. Shuji was tempted beyond belief to gloat, but something told him to restrain himself, the brawler instead engaging the next step of his plan without any initial snark. "Robotallion, Charge!" Yui's opponent yelled, aggressively motioning toward the opposing Bakugan. Robotallion obeyed, lowering itself and barreling toward Saurus, long blades extending from each of its wrists, swaying back and forth as the Bakugan charged. "Not yet…" Yui mumbled, her fists closed tightly as she seemed to study both Robotallion and Shuji at the same time, searching for something.

Robotallion quickly swung its wrist blades upward and it jumped at Saurus, swinging them back down toward the Bakugan's shoulders, the Haos foe catching the blades in its hands, holding them back it his hands despite the Ventus Bakugans application of force. Robotallion was up 20 g's on Saurus, meaning something had to change in order for Yui to turn the battle around. Saurus, the more experienced of the two fighters, quickly rotated one of its wrists inward, shattering the thin blade it was holding back, to the surprise of Robotallion. The rhino took this to its advantage, quickly forming its hand into a fist around the break away blade and socking its opponent in the face with it, causing it to stumble further, thus allowing Yui's beast to begin bending the other wrist blade, attempting to snap the flexible weapon off as it did the previous one. Robotallion did not take this in stride however, quickly roundhousing Saurus in the jaw with the leg parallel to the hand that was now missing its blade, sending the Haos Bakugan stumbling back. His Ventus counterpart continued his assault, quickly swinging its remaining blade toward the Bakugans shoulder, making a straight slash mark into the Bakugans armour before the blade stopped in its tracks, stuck. Shuji laughed, smashing his knuckles together; the battle was his, at least as he saw it anyway. He glared toward his opposing brawler, who he saw mumble something, both of her hands in fists with the backs facing forward. Saurus was struggling, boxing Robotallion across the face several times in an attempt to force a temporary retreat, partly succeeding as the Ventus Bakugan backed up momentarily, dazed due to the repetitive pummelling of said face. Saurus collapsed onto one knee, slamming a fist into the ground to support itself. He felt the roughness of combat catch up with him, the impacts setting in. His shoulder ached, his hands slashed, his ankles felt like they were on fire. His Ventus opponent righted itself, marching over toward its foe, wavering slightly as if it felt Saurus may receive a second win. Alas, he remained still, Robotallion stopping in front of him and raising his arm blade.

"Ability Activate: Hynoid Strike!"

Saurus fully lowered himself in his kneeling position as Yui's Pyrus Hynoid ran up behind him. The Bakugan used Saurus' muscled back as a launchpad, ejecting himself off of his Haos ally using his powered hind legs, flying at Robotallion. Hynoid dug his flaming claws into his Ventus foe, who was completely unprepared for the attack as it was forced into the terrain, the Pyrus fighter beginning to violently slash as his foe, claws moving at blinding speeds, dents and slash marks forming in Robotallion's steel skin seemingly out of nowhere. Bolts of what could best be described as Pyrus Lightning shot down from around Hynoid, further damaging the Ventus Bakugan. "Wha… WHAT?" Shuji exclaimed, quickly looking to his bakupod for further information. "Ventus Robotallion 250 g's., Hynoid Saurus combined gpower 630 g's." it reported, Shuji quickly looking back up as he fumbled for a counter attack, only to see he was too late.

A small cloud of dust and debris had formed around the spot of Hynoid's assault, the raining firebolts of his previous attack kicking up a storm during their respective impacts. Robotallion was heard letting out one last pained gasp before its audible return to ball form was heard, a green Bakugan ball shooting out from the wreckage and hitting Shuji directly in the forehead, causing him to stumble. Grabbing the impact pointing with his palm, Shuji looked up once again, the cloud dissipated; the Hynoid and Saurus stood alongside each other, marveling at their victory. "I… I just…" Shuji began, staring as Saurus ruffled the fur on Hynoid's head before they both returned to ball form, a wave of white overpowering all of his of senses.

" _ **hooONK HONK!"**_

The noises of reality returning to its normal state was never not weird, but nobody paid attention to the sound of cars and trucks driving above them returning to their usual state. Instead, the brawlers quickly came up behind Yui, celebrating her victory, while Shuji simply stared downward at his Robotallion. "Dude, you lost again?" Akira asked in a mix of shock and amazement, Yui's final combination attack giving him something to remember. Shuji's bewilderment quickly turned to distress upon hearing this. "Shut up Akira!" he screamed, kicking Robotallion away like a child would break a toy in rage. "I'm going home to Mommy!" he continued, turning and running out of the underpass, his wailes still heard even after he had left. "See ya later dudes!" Akira yelled back as he ran after Shuji, leading the brawlers to stand there in confusion.

"Huh…" Grey said. "he left the robotallion here." Yama added, motioning to the Ventus Bakugan which had landed in the dirt in front of them. "Poor dude." Kai said, walking through the brawlers and going to pick up the disused Bakugan. "He's gonna probably have switched his attribute by the end of the week, so uh…" he began, interrupted by Yui. "If he doesn't ask for it back, I guess you should keep it?" she said, looking up for a moment from her two Bakugan stars in her hands. "Alright, so while Yui's victory was pretty darn cool…" Grey began, Yui beaming with pride. "The masked Frenchman didn't show up at all, and we still have no clue where he is…" he continued, everyone's post battle dopamine boost quickly wearing off. "that is true…" Yama noted, scratching his chin. "Well that bitessss…" Kai began, his voice trailing off as he turned back to face the brawlers.

"That wall wasn't there before." he said, pointing.

Everyone turned around. They then paused.

"That was not there before." Grey echoed.

"nore was that doorway…" Yama added, also shocked.

It was indeed true. Where there was once a degree of open space below the freeway, floored by dirt, a wall now stood, a darkened doorway placed within it. It couldn't have been there before, the brawlers had walked directly through where it stood in order to arrive in their current location. "What on Earth…" Yui began before a sound interrupted her, her soul leaving her body for a moment as a bad memory resurfaced with it.

"Hehehehe…" a voice came, everyone honing in on the sound coming from the darkened door frame, blackness behind it. While Kai and Grey stared forward, both somewhat scared, Yama quickly looked beside himself to Yui, who was frozen like a statue. "yui are you…?" he began. "That's him." she said, her voice lacking any emotion. Her hands were in fists around her Bakugan, her eyes baring directly forward, fear in them. She was legitimately terrified, her prideful spirit provided by her flawless victory taken.

A figure appeared in the darkness, the brawlers all frightened by the silhouette for a moment as it didn't appear to resemble a human at first, its head covered in upward shooting spikes. The figure stepped into the light, the group equally on edge even as they realized he was a homo sapien, decked out in what Yui had described. White coat, blonde spiked hair, a combination of a snail shell and a hair dryer on his wrist, and a mask that covered his eyes.

"Greyson Noboru, I take it?" he asked, his voice surprisingly polite for someone who had been described as a kidnapper by Yui and countless others.

"Yeah…" he responded, slightly unnerved. "Who the heck are you?".

"Call me Masquerade." the figure responded, placing an open hand to his chest, bowing his head slightly. Everyone was still on guard; if Yui's display was anything to go by, this man might as well have been a serial killer. "Masquerade?" Yama began, Grey noting a subtle accent shift in his voice.

"c'est toi qui a pris le Bakugan de notre ami, je le prends?" he continued.

"Oui, c'est vrai dans un sens." Masquerade responded.

"I don't speak French…" Grey mumbled, a hand on his card deck holster located the boys hip. " _Yama can speak French, what the heck, since when?_ " he thought, attempting to conceal the thoughts on his face. " _Seems convenient for this situation._ ".

"Greyson, I understand you wish to battle." the enigmatic figure asked, flipping a card seemingly out of his wrist. "Yeah… Yeah Masquerade! We're here to stop you from stealing any more Bakugan!" Grey reposted, quickly pulling his field card in front of himself. "Hehehe… As you wish." he responded, raising his own.

"Let us begin monsieur."

"I TOLD YOU I DON'T SPEAK FRENCH!"

Both of the brawlers quickly raised their field cards, Kai, Yama, and Yui stepping back to give Grey some space. They had agreed he'd be the one to fight Masquerade; he had the strongest Bakugan out of all of them in the form of Leonidas, and also tended to be the most adaptable of the crew. The others found themselves preoccupied anyway, Yui seeming to be somewhere between dead on the inside and having an anxiety attack.

" _ **BAKUGAN, FIELD OPEN!"**_

Time began to slow in a similar matter to how it did previously, sounds warping as the temporal flow grinded to a halt. Leonidas, hearing the commotion outside of his resting place, quickly stuck his head out of Grey's pocket, viewing the slowing field formation, but seeing something much more interesting in view. On the french guy's, whatever his name was, shoulder, a darkly coloured Bakugan sat, seething with rageful energy. He returned Leo's gaze, the two fighters almost reading each other as the terrain adjusted to a brawling environment.

" **... Something ain't right...** "

Leonidas' mumbles, despite being against his usual predatory and aggressive nature, went unnoticed by the wider crowd, the field having finished its formation, white terrain and elemental skies fully formed over the previously dull backdrop. Grey quickly pulled his first gate card just as Masquerade pulled theirs, both of them prepared to throw.

"Gate Card Set!"

"Gate Card Set."

Something made Grey flinch a little as he threw his card, it matching velocity with Masquerade's as the two bypassed each other to their respective landing zones. He had an aura of seriousness about him, like this was his job and not something he did for fun. Nevertheless, Greyson focused as the two gate cards expanded, the distance between himself and his foe as he took hold of his Bakugan, noticing Masquerade pull out another card. It looked different to a gate card, and having no Bakugan on the field yet prevented him from activating abilities. The masked man instead dropped the card, it slowly floating down and embedding a point of itself into the ground, glowing a purple light as it slid into the white terrain. "Your move." he said, seemingly looking at Grey behind the mask. "Oh you are all kinds of weird…" Greyson responded, preparing to launch his beast into battle, feeling a light shaking in his pocket, probably Leonidas sleeping.

"Bakugan Brawl!"

The Pyrus Serpenoid shot out toward the gate card opposite to Grey, landing as he yelled; "Bakugan Stand!", opening as if the saying was an instruction. A ring of fire opened around the fire snake as its eyes glowed, the flames roaring up to conceal its formation. Two coils of the organism's body rose, seemingly spinning and the Pyrus Bakugan slithered into an attack position, the flames subsiding as the Bakugans stand was complete. Serpenoid had his head lowered, almost nobally, looking down at Masquerade and ready to pounce on anything he might throw. Masquerade in counter raised his right arm, armed with the enigmatic object strapped to it coloured in darkus themes, and prepared himself.

"Bakugan Brawl."

Masquerade quickly lowered his right hand as a dark sphere shot out from the object, Grey immediately identifying it as a Bakugan shooter, taking a moment to ridicule himself for not thinking of that earlier. The projectile did not travel far, bouncing across the gate card Serpenoid found himself on and slowing, popping along the terrain a few times before opening. The Darkus Bakugan on the inside eyes glowed as a swirl of dark energy arose from its landing point, almost like a typhoon as a black silhouette grew within, red eyes glaring at its opponents. The vortex vanished in under a second, Serpenoid adjusting its gaze upward toward his foe. He carried a scythe, an aura of death surrounding him. "Oh thas all kinds a' creepy!" Kai noted, Greyson quickly looking to his bakupod.

"Pyrus Serpenoid 240 g's, Darkus Reaper 370 g's."

"Okay." Grey said, processing the data laid before him. " _His Reaper has a gpower of 370, that outclasses even Leonidas by 30. Assuming he doesn't use any other strategies I can win 3 rounds pretty easily, but his Bakugan is Darkus which means he'll likely rely on strategy disruption and his beast's high base power to win._ ". Greyson, upon reading over the facts in his head, decided to go with his original strategy and adapt on the fly, quickly shooting his hand out, he initiated his next move.

"Gate Card Open: Serpenoid!"

The card below the angel of death and the snake of something or other quickly glowed in a red light, columns of fire shooting upward in all directions as its effects took hold. It was a character card, which quickly did its work of doubling the gpower of the Bakugan assigned to it, Serpenoid's energy doubling swiftly as fire continued to roar across the terrain. Despite the confidence assigned with its power, Serpenoid trembled for a moment at Reaper, not so much physically intimidated as one would expect. The Bakugan's instincts were screaming at it to run, hide, nothing within its brain told it to fight aside from itself, he found this curious. Nevertheless Serpenoid pounced at Reaper, nimbly navigating toward him through the fire and the flames, snaking up to him and chomping onto its foes' leg, who let out a cry, rather a grunt, of protest to this action. He continued, the Pyrus Bakugan coiling its body around the Darkus Reaper, applying an incredible amount of pressure. "Pyrus Serpenoid power increase to 480 g's, Darkus Reaper 370 g's." Greyson's bakupod chimed, the owner confident yet wearing of the increase of over 100 gpower. Reaper remained incredibly calm during this time, almost letting Serpenoid coil him like a child would cuddle a puppy (though with significantly more force and a higher chance of the animal's eyes going flying out of their sockets from the pressure). Greyson then glanced to Masquerade, who, with a card in hand, raised his arm above his head, presenting it as it activated.

"Dimension 4."

The card in the frenchman's hand glowed in a Darkus energy that smelled of dread, its effects taking hold immediately. The gate card's effects ceased, the fire on the field quickly blowed out by what seemed to be wind produced by the card. Serpenoid immediately felt the toll of the ability, losing its strength rapidly in a way that was quite physically observable. "What is that?" Grey questioned, his arms covering his face from the wind and debris blown by said wind generated by Dimension 4, glancing down at his bakupod in the meantime. "Character Card Nullified, Serpenoid gpower decrease to 240 g's, Darkus Reaper 370 g's." it read, the audio unhearable in the tempest. Grey mumbled something profane out of a mix of frustration and fear, the gust dying down slightly as he established his visual on the brawl.

Serpenoid still held the upper hand, his coiling actions on Reaper unbroken and the Bakugan's scythe rendered unusable as his arms were trapped within. The Pyrus snake didn't let its guard down however, sensing that his opponents power was greater than his own. Serpenoid glanced back at Grey, head unmoving as he feigned focusing on the Darkus Bakugan in his grip. His brawler nodded, knowing his opponent's warrior could break free at any time, pulling an ability card and activating it with haste.

"Ability Activate: Fire Wall!"

A ring of fire roared up from the terrain around Serpenoid and Reaper, the latter feeling the burning almost immediately at the wall of flame reached a height far exceeding his own. The flaming barrier stood for a moment before it began to close around the Bakugan duo, Serpenoid increasing its grip slightly as Reaper showed some small sign of weakness, the former gaining confidence in his ability to take the Darkus Bakugan down. Serpenoid raised its stinger from the coil, posting it for a stabbing attack at his foe while his brawler consulted his bakupod for guidance. "Pyrus Serpenoid 240 g's, Darkus Reaper 320 g's." it chimed, the cogs in Greyson's head turning like turbines as he ran the scenario through his head. " _Okay, so, Reaper's gpower is still higher than my own Bakugan's, but Serpenoid currently has the more tactically superior location. Okay. Reaper is also likely somewhat spent due to being coiled for so long, meaning Serpenoid's stamina is also higher. Okay. Masquerade has already-_ " his train of thought trailed off as he observed his opposing brawler's movement, the masked maniac turning sideways a little and grinning. "What is he…" Grey began before being interrupted.

Masquerade quickly raised his arm upward, pointing a flared out hand toward his Bakugan.

"Reaper." he said simply.

Reaper responded, hunching over for a moment as his muscles seemingly flared.

" **Get off me insect!** "

Reaper quickly flexed and spread his arms outward, immediately breaking Serpenoid's coil as if it was nothing, the Pyrus Bakugan hissing in pain as its body was momentarily forcefully contorted. "HE CAN TALK-" Yama exclaimed, his surprise mirrored by everyone else of that side of the fight before he trailed off. Reaper immediately took his scythe in an attack position, rearing it above his head and roaring; " **YOU'RE DONE ANIMAL!** ". Serpenoid barely had a moment to react, nore did Greyson, before Reaper swung the blade down and across the snake's underbelly, a red glowing mark appearing, time seemingly stunned.

And then came the noise. The horrid noise.

Originating from behind the brawlers, it sounded as if the very code of reality itself had undergone a horrid mutation. Grey hadn't even fully turned before his heart stopped for a moment, his eyes showing his fear. The rest of the team did the same. Yama starred, Yui went borderline catatonic, Kai attempted to hide his own sense of dread and comfort her.

Reality broke apart in squares, revealing a shady violet portal behind them, a suction effect taking hold immediately that was several magnitudes more powerful than what Dimension 4 had previously offered. Grey glanced back, his eyes further dilating as he watched in horror, Serpenoid being pulled across the field, his already injured hide being dragged across the terrain toward the portal.

"SERPENOID, NO!" he roared.

" **NO, DON'T LET HIM-** "

But it was too late.

Serpenoid, still injured from a red slash mark across his hide, went flying into the portal, Grey's heart still stopped as the Bakugan vanished into it in a matter of seconds. The portal quickly began to close, squares of the field returning like building blocks before the portal completely ceased to exist. Yet he continued staring at where it had once been, his brain not even registering his friends, Yui crying, Kai's confusion, Yama's pure dumbfoundment, the sense of dread within him, produced by the portal, it overpowered everything.

" **Greyson.** "

Serpenoid was gone, his cries of pain echoing in his head.

" **Greyson!** "

The dread, the portal. He felt as if his heart stopped beating. It felt like it had.

" **GREYSON LISTEN TO ME!** "

Grey's heart began doing its job once more as the thunderous voice near him finally made contact with his brain. Greyson looked to the side, a near spherical blue object floating beside him coming into view, it taking a moment for his eyes to adjust enough for him to see it.

It was Leonidas.

"What… What the hell was that?" Grey asked, still confused and unsure of who to ask for an explanation. Leonidas was silent for a moment, the Bakugan's Aquos head looking down for a moment before answering. " _ **That… The trenchcoat opened a gate to the Doom Dimension.**_ " Leo responded almost plainly, his voice ghostly in contrast to his typically aggressive tone. "What?" Greyson responded, not entirely purged of the dread energy the portal had created. "What the hell is the Doom Dimension and-" he stopped himself. Serpenoid. He was gone.

" _The… The Doom Dimension is our Hell_." Leonidas began, his voice now completely out of tune from usual. " _At least with how you seem to use the word… It's where Bakugan go to die, there is no escape, just void and emptiness…_ ". " **And that "French" freak found a way to open that which should not be!** " he concluded, the aggressive tone returning to his voice as his anger once again manifested, this time against Masquerade and his still standing Reaper. Greyson also looked forward toward his opponents, the still towering Reaper finally closing, the fact that it was capable of speech now subconsciously buried in the back of his mind as the Bakugan shot back to its brawler, who caught it calmly.

"HEY, YOU BETTER GIVE SERPENOID BACK!" Grey roared, legitimate rage filling his voice. "YUI'S TERRORCLAW'S ALSO UNDER THAT!" Kai added, still holding the now full scale emotion mess that was the brawler in question. Masquerade simply made a mocking shrug in response, grinning slightly as he did so. "Sorry, but those Bakugan are gone forever. I couldn't get them back even if I wanted to." he said, his voice calm in contrast to the instability present within everyone of the opposing side. Greyson growled in response, a strange contrast as Leonidas was the one to then take initiative. " **Greyson.** " he said, catching his brawlers attention. " **W-You need to be careful, it seems like any Bakugan that lose while whatever he put down is in effect are goners…** ". "Right… Gotta be careful." Grey responded, going for his cards. " **Greyson.** "

"Yeah?"

" **Use me.** "

"Leonidas I…" he started, trying to figure out how to articulate his concern. "You were shaking earlier, you know about this stuff… You're scared.". " **I'M NOT-… I'm the strongest warrior you have, I have the best chance of taking down whatever other monstrosity he throws out.** " Leonidas responded, dead serious. "I…" Grey began before realizing his Bakugan was probably correct, Masquerade pretty clearly had powerful Bakugan up his sleeve, and it was probably a smart move to use his strongest against his opponents. "Alright…" he said, reaching out to grab Leonidas out of the air, pausing just beforehand. "Don't get sent to Baku-hell." "Count on it." Leo responded as Grey's hand closed around him, the brawler quickly calculating his next move, pulling a gate card in preparation for his next strategy.

"Gate Card Set!"

A gate card flew out, landing next to Masquerade's card and the previously last gate card on the field, expanding to the side of it to full size. Grey studied Masquerade for a moment, unable to discern any visible indicators from his thought process. Nevertheless, Greyson gripped Leonidas tightly in his hand before arching his hand back, and launching the still Aquos Bakugan into the fray.

"Bakugan Brawl!"

Leonidas' ball form shot out with a perfect mix of fury and grace, hitting the gate card and opening on impact, the terrain around the blue being turning to water as Leo's still Aquos ball form lowered into it, his stand taking place submerged. With a massive splash Leonidas emerged from the gate card, rocketing upward to display a furious roar before slamming down into the now hardened ground, leaving a light impact crater in his wake. Leonidas stood, glaring forward with his claws in attack position, his blue Aquos hide shining and he snarled toward Masquerade, emanating pure rage.

"Oh." Masquerade vocalized, surprised by the turn of events. Not only had his opponent thrown out a Bakugan he had never seen before, but one of differing attribute as well. Masquerade peered curiously at him, even he was able to sense the ferocity behind those eyes, as was Reaper. His brawler had also deployed him onto his own card, as if they knew that he would be surprised by the strange Bakugan and would want to investigate. "He seems friendly. And his brawler is deploying some strategy as well" Masquerade said calmly. " **No matter. I look forward to fighting him.** " Reaper responded, clamping closed into ball form as Masquerade went to load him into his shooter. "And send him to do the Doom Dimension?" his brawler inquired. " **Yes**." he responded, a sadistic pleasure in his voice. Masquerade chuckled lightly before resuming his serious disposition, raising his shooter arm above himself for a moment before lowering it, firing Reaper into battle.

"Bakugan brawl."

Reaper shot out of the shooter and onto Leonidas' gate card, bouncing a few times before popping open, eyes glowing. A familiar vortex of darkness swirled up, Leonidas unflinching as Reaper's black silhouette slowly rose out of the hurricane, his glowing red eyes visible and glaring through. The typhoon of Darkus energy dissipated, leaving its previous inhabitant floating in the air via seemingly no propulsion from his wings.

"What the hell are you?" Reaper asked, sounding as if he was disgusted by the mere sight of Leonidas. " **I could ask you the same question boney.** " he responded, the Darkus Bakugan indeed slightly intimidated not only by the rage in Leo's voice, but his unwavering in the face of a stronger opponent. Also… Had he just insulted him? Grey meanwhile, quickly consulted his bakupod, knowing how dangerous Reaper was. "Aquos Leonidas 340 g's, Darkus Reaper 370 g's." it chimed, Grey gaining some confidence in a power difference significantly less grand than the previous fight. "Alright, let's do this…" he said to himself, selecting an ability card while trying to ignore a shaky voice.

"A-Ability Activate: Theta Claw!"

Leonidas felt energy from the ability card channel to his claws, the sharp appendages growing even morso as they extended with a blue energy. He raised them forward, lowering himself as he prepared to charge at Reaper, still airborne. Leonidas bent his knees, his wings in an upward position, his eyes observing Reaper's weapon, transferring data to his predatory brain on what direction he may attack from. Leonidas prepared his attack, meanwhile Reaper knew exactly what to do. The Aquos thing would charge him, he would counter, and the monstrosity would be sent to the Doom Dimension. There was some part of him however saying that may not be the case, and he indeed hoped it would be true; Reaper wanted the fight to last.

Leonidas crouched down further, ready to pounce at his Darkus foe when ready, his claws still glowing in a blue light. Reaper kept defensive, gripping his signature scythe in both hands, ready for an attack by his Aquos opponent.

There was silence.

And then Leonidas pounced.

Reaper quickly swung his scythe forward, but it found no target, the Darkus Bakugan quickly realizing his foe was nowhere within his sight. He quickly glanced around, holding his weapon ready to swing once he established a visual. "Where did…" Reaper began before the realization of where the creature was hit him. He looked down.

But it was too late.

Leonidas met Reaper at eye level, the dragon's bloodshot predatory eyes gazing into Reaper's surprised yet dead ones, the latter making out a smirk on his foe before the attack hit him. Aquos Leonidas made four vertical slash marks across Reaper's torso, threading the needle of space between the Darkus Bakugan's body, arms, and scythe, making use of Theta Claw as he rose.

" **Wh-** " Reaper sputtered, dumbfounded.

" **Payback!** " Leonidas responded before he rocketed upward, performing a backflip mid air before preparing to rocket back down.

"Aquos Leonidas 390 g's, Darkus Reaper 320 g's." Grey's bakupod chimed, its user more focused on the fight then anything. "Finish this quick Leo…" he mumbled before his gaze rapidly switched to Masquerade, as did his Bakugan's as the Darkus brawler presented a glowing card in his hand, his arm held above his head.

"Double Dimension."

Cracks immediately formed on Leonidas' claw extensions, with the Theta Claws shattering a moment later, the owner's hands wincing as the energy rapidly dispersed into tiny particles that soon disintegrated into nothing. The Aquos predator, switching his focus onto his foe below him, managed to catch a glimpse as the quad slash wounds he had inflicted earlier seemingly reversed through time, seemingly disappearing completely from his angle, causing him to waver. Double Dimension did it's doubtful duty drastically well, nullifying seemingly ALL of the effects of Leonidas' previous attack. A similar gust of wind blew from the point of origin, but all the major players of the fight remained still, except for the occasional wing movement from Leonidas, assisting in keeping him airborne.

"Aquos Leonidas 340 g's, Darkus Reaper 370 g's."

Reaper slowly looked up at his opponent, his eyes thinned to a glare, his scythe gripped firmly in his hand.

" **Now you've pissed me off.** " he said plainly, the anger behind his voice something different to Leonidas, who simply grinned at the statement.

" **Bring it Boney!** "

Reaper grunted before his movements instantly switched, his wings propelling him upward as he swung his weapon's blade down, prepared to swing at the target he was rocketing toward. Leonidas quickly rotated himself around, using his wings to deliver a burst of thrust, sending him flying toward Reaper, his focus seemingly directed directly forward. But it was not. Out of his peripheral vision he could see Greyson, his figure somewhat blurred due to Leonidas' lack of focus, yet the Bakugan could still make out his brawlers general actions, raising his hand and saying the words he hoped he'd hear.

"Ability Activate:-"

" **Textbook.** "

The card is Grey's hand glowed in a blue light as its energy zipped toward Leonidas' wings near instantaneously, the words "Rho Gun" being quite audible across the field as the tips of Leo's wings charged up with power. His Darkus opponent also noticed this, quickly attempting a course correction to dodge the incoming projectile.

He had assumed there would only be one anyway.

A burst of three lasers fired from each wingtip, all fired in a slightly diverging firing arc, all of them flying at Reaper and his course adjustment path.

The first round of shots missed entirely.

The second round had one shot make contact, destabilizing the target.

The third round had both land successfully.

Reaper continued rocketing upward, sensing Double Dimension's effects fading as he attempted to right himself from Rho Guns impact, glancing at his brawler momentarily, who seemed more flustered than himself. "He just nullified a nullification ability." Masquerade observed, seemingly taken out of tune with the fight. "Idiot-" Reaper began, stopping as he felt a massive pain in his torso, glaring down to see four slash marks forming up from his stomach to the top of his sternum, barely able to stifle an audible signal of his pain, his mind removed from the fight for a moment before something else entered it.

Laughing. No. _Cackling._

 _And it was coming from above._

Reaper glanced upward to see his opponent still rushing down at him, blue Theta Claws extended once more, and a beast that was laughing. No. Cackling with childlike joy of what was about to occur. His claws glowed vividly in blue light, soaring toward him since they were reactivated when Double Dimension was nullified.

" **Damn it, NO-"**

But it was too late.

Reaper was unable to raise his polearm in time, with Leonidas quickly slamming a closed fist into it, causing its user to let go. At the same moment, Leo's second claw came slashing downward across the Darkus Bakugan's already brutalized chest, an audible zing heard as he did so, still cackling maniacally, matching Reaper's eyes. He was enjoying this. The angel of death didn't even have a moment to curse at his foe, instead falling back slightly before his body began to disintegrate.

Leonidas had won.

Reaper returned to ball form, shooting back at Masquerade but falling short, bouncing along the quickly evaporating gate card as if even the laws to his own physics had been drained. Masquerade crouched slightly to catch him before standing back up. Reaper had not been defeated before, a fact that echoed behind his bland face as he looked at Leonidas, finally calming down from his cackling and returning to his own ball form, the gate card beneath him fully shattering after.

"Interesting."

Leonidas shot back toward Greyson, who caught him with relative ease, grinning all the while. "Yeah! How'd you like that Masquerade?" he yelled toward his opponent, bouncing like an excited child. "Nice!" Kai added, his grip on Yui being lessened. "He won…" she said, a smile slowly taking over her face, her sense of fear and dread evaporating like the gate card had before them. "He can be beaten!". "yeah grey! take him down!" Yama added, shoving a fist into the air in excitement. Greyson smiled before shifting his focus to Leonidas, who was in ball form in his hands. "You did amazing. Ready to finish the job?" he said, not so much smiling at the Bakugan as he was grinning. Leonidas popped open his Aquos sphere, looking up at his brawler.

" **I'm gonna destroy him!** "

"Heck yeah you are!"

On the other side of the battle field, Masquerade and Reaper were having a similar conversation, though the context and content of it were quite different. It… Wasn't really a similar conversation.

" **I lost…** "

"Yes."

" **I… I lost.** "

"Yes."

" **I lost!** "

"Are you done, Reaper?"

The Bakugan looked up at his master, cupped within their hands. Losing wasn't a familiar concept to Reaper, his battle technique and power usually enough to pretty handily end most fights. This was different. "Your strategy mainly relied on you having higher base gpower and nullifying any attempt made by an opponent to strike you. It's natural that something as simple as that would be able to be disrupted itself." Masquerade explained, looking back up toward the other brawlers. "Granted… This Bakugan is different.". " **It has something… A savage ferocity, a fighting spirit like my own…** " Reaper responded, trying to make sense of his current situation.

"Sounds like you have some admiration for our foe." Masquerade implied.

" **Yes… I want to fight it's again, see it's full potential…** " Reaper replied.

"Very well." Masquerade said, closing one of his hands around Reaper and preparing to load him into his shooter. Chances are his opponent would likely use the Aquos Bakugan again on the prospect that it had previously won against Reaper. Additionally, this fight was on Masquerade's own gate card. Assuming Leonidas couldn't disable those, the battle was his. He clicked the top of the shooter closed, Reaper encased inside, and raised his arm above his head, holding it for a few moments before dropping his arm forward, the Bakugan shooting out.

"Bakugan brawl."

Reaper bounced a few times along the gate card before popping open, the Darkus vortex making yet another appearance as the Bakugan stood. He looked down at his enemies as he rose up through the hurricane of dark energy, no fear in either of them this time. Grey quickly tossed Leonidas in the air once, catching him and then arching his arm back. "Let's do this Leonidas!" he roared, throwing his arm forward and his projectile along with it. Leonidas' ball form shot out, arcing through the air and landing in place, opening on impact even before Reaper had finished his own stand. The terrain below him once again turned to liquid as his form sunk down, blue light shining out of the water. Leonidas emerged seconds later with a splash, his battle form primed as he took to the air, matching Reaper's altitude as his Darkus tornado began to dissipate.

" **Well-** " Reaper began, interrupted immediately.

The Aquos creature launched itself at Reaper before he could even finish his stand, the Darkus typhoon still dissipating as Leonidas smashed into his foe with his shoulder, driving him downward toward the terrain. The Darkus opponent quickly realized the situation, gripping his scythe and preparing to drive it into his foe's back. " **Pathetic-** " he began, before he was cut off once again as his Aquos opponent pushed Reaper ahead of his flight path before quickly turning and planting his foot into the Darkus warrior's torso, driving him flying into the ground. Leonidas quickly arrested his momentum using his wings, scanning the area to find his foe planted into the ground. Reaper shook his head, gripping it with one hand and looking up toward his attacker, who was grinning wildly. "A blitzkrieg… A suitable tactic…" Reaper said, partly interrupted as he coughed to remove some of the debris from his lungs. "I don't speak French." Leonidas responded, eyes narrow and mouth grinning. Reaper laughed for a moment before looking back to his brawler, nodding. Masquerade made no action to respond to the provider of this prompt, instead launching his hand forward, open palm facing toward the battlefield.

"Gate card open: Joker's Wild."

The terrain of the battle began glowing in a purple light, the Aquos combatant immediately feeling a cold shiver travel up his spine as his instincts began roaring at him. The gate card beneath the fighters glowed in a purple light, Leonidas' body itself feeling a sense of dread and destruction that only a dark card like this could provide.

"Joker's Wild makes it so that the side with a Darkus Bakugan wins automatically." Masquerade said plainly, seeing Leonidas' grinning face turn to a panicked, no, conerned expression bringing a smile to his own.

But then he stopped.

 _Click_

"Switch!"

Masquerade looked over to Greyson, who had a hand facing forward Leonidas in a finger gun, just having concluded snapping it. Leonidas glanced back for a moment as the visual and auditory information almost jumped over his mind amid everything else.

"Switch"

He knew exactly what to do.

Leonidas quickly crossed his arms over his chest as his wings lowered him to the ground, his standing claws gripping into the glowing terrain, his massive wings coiling around him as a glow seemingly began within his wing barrier. A purple light grew within, rapidly overpowering the light of the gate card as a low murmur was heard. This murmur quickly turned into a savage roar, as Leonidas swung his arms and wings outward, the colour of his hide rapidly began to change, the Aquos blues shifting as his hide turned black, purple tones overtaking his horns, wings, and other areas as his underside shifted to a grey colour. Leonidas quickly clamped his claws shut, an audible crack heard. He was ready.

" **What…** " Reaper mumbled as he moved to stand up.

"Interesting." Masquerade commented, gripping his chin with his hand the way an intellectual would.

The glowing card beneath them finally attempted to activate. Joker's Wild was an amazing card, but it's windup time but it easy to nullify, or in this case, glitch. The card glowed with an increased intensity before it seemingly paused, almost shifting for a moment the way a malfunctioning computer screen would, and then ceased to glow, the original gate card pattern appearing below them in a faded tone.

"Very interesting indeed." Masquerade added, further examining the now dead gate card. "So do you know any other words in English aside from variations of interesting or?" Kai asked loudly, being seemingly the only person on the field who could hear the Darkus brawlers intense commentary. Grey chuckled for a moment before resuming his serious posture, taking hold of Leonidas' last remaining ability card. "Alright Leo, let's finish this!" he roared to his Bakugan, getting a stern nod and grunt in return. "Reaper. End them." Masquerade commanded similarly, pulling his Bakugan's own last ability. "Yes master!" he responded, swinging his scythe into an attack stance. Both brawlers raised their cards, their corresponding Bakugan ready to attack.

"Ability Activate: Alpha Blaster!"

"Ability Activate: Reaper of the Chaos."

Leonidas' muzzled began crackling with electricity as Reaper's scythe blade extended via a purple light, becoming longer and sharper than before. Greyson quickly consulted his bakupod, knowing this fight would be down to the razor sharp teeth.

"Darkus Leonidas power increase to 540 g's, Darkus Reaper power increase to 570 g's."

"Okay… Reaper's attack is pretty clearly melee based, and Alpha Blaster works best from range. If Reaper hits Leonidas with his scythe, we're done, if Leonidas manages a hit on Reaper, he's done…" Greyson mumbled, knowing that the chances of Leo winning were not that grand. Granted, the Bakugan had pulled some tricks out before, and he was hoping that his own Darkus monster would use a trump card and finish Reaper off.

Leonidas finished charging the electrical energy within his muzzle just as Reaper's weapon finished its own transformation, the blade now longer and much, much more horrifying. Leo lowered his head, muzzle pointed forward as he prepared to fire, knowing Reaper would likely attempt a dodge.

Reaper charged.

Leonidas fired the Alpha Blaster out of his muzzle at high velocity, the beam of energy rushing forward directly toward his incoming opponent. It seemingly made contact from his own perspective, dismay rushing his mind as his Darkus foe sideswiped the projectile and continued propelling forward, the angel of death's wing smoking lightly. The Alpha Blaster projectile ended, Leonidas backing and preparing to launch a second, muzzle crackling with electricity as Reaper continued his charge. The Darkus draconian cocked his head once again, attempting a different strategy; rapidly opening and closing his teeth, leading to a burst fire of Alpha Blaster's beam, essentially peppering his foe in an attempt to slow his charge. Reaper skillfully attempted to dodge the incoming stream of multiple smaller projectiles, each of which exploded upon contact with the terrain.

One made contact.

Reaper disappeared in a shroud of debris for a moment, Leonidas cocking his head up slightly, unsure as to whether or not the blast had defeated his opponent.

It didn't.

Reaper came flying out of the debris cloud like a twister, his entire body spinning like a sideways top as his scythe turned into a small hurricane of death. Despite looking worse for wear than before, wings and armour now slightly cindering, he wasn't out of the fight yet. His foe attempted to jump back, but was incapable of building such speed in time, the Chaos Scythe making a slash mark across Leonidas' underside, almost causing the Bakugan to stumble as his balance was warped. But he didn't. As Reaper righted himself in an attempted for a second slash attack, his foe planted a clawed foot into the terrain behind him, stabilizing himself for a moment as his senses quickly fed him the latest information of the battle. Reaper, now righted, attempted a sideways slashing motion at his opponent, who quickly grabbed the length of the scythe and arrested its momentum, the two fighters meeting face to face for a moment. " **You…** " Reaper began, Leonidas quickly charging his horn toward Reapers facing, it sliding off the top and cracking the armour of his faceplate in an awkward headbutt. Leonidas had no time for words, his brain giving him only a battleplan:

Disarm. Break. Kill.

Reaper rapidly retalitated, quickly kicking Leonidas in the gut, an impact worsened by the previous slash to that area. Leo roared in pain, yet he did not let his grip of the scythe lose, instead attempting to transfer the kicking motion into one of his own. He quickly ejecting himself off the ground, using the polearm as a grounding point for a flip as he spun over it, and delivered a planter kick directly into Reaper's still cracked skull. His dark enemy collapsed under the pressure, Leonidas quickly wrestling the scythe off him as he ejected himself into the air, away from the dust cloud his kick had delivered.

Disarm.

He rapidly looked down at the weapon before him, without a second thought of instead using it himself, he quickly raised it above a bent knee. Leonidas swung the polearm down over it, the weapon shattering near the blade, its previously glowing sharp end rapidly dissipating into its normal layered form.

Break.

Leonidas quickly tightened his grasp on the length of the scythe, arching the handle backward and launching it down at the debris cloud, aiming for Reaper incase he hadn't yet been destroyed, as had the case been before. He then took hold of the blade in one of his claws, putting it ahead of him as he reoriented himself, his wings then shooting him downward at the debris field, the Bakugan disappearing into it.

" _ **SHHHHHHHHHHHHHLK"**_

Kill.

That sound was not one of a simple victory, Greyson and Masquerade both knew that. Someone in the fight had gotten slashed, and only the dust cloud's rate of dissipation would reveal who it was. "Leo?! Are you okay?!" his brawler yelled, taking a moment to glance toward his enemy brawler, who simply stood there, as if waiting for a train instead of waiting to see if his Bakugan had just been defeated. The debris cloud continued to dissipate, the brawlers just barely making out the silhouette of one, no, two creatures, contorted into some borderline unrecognisable position.

Greyson heard something, breathing definitely, a sort of panting a dog would perform when hot or exhausted.

The cloud cleared more, now the full scope of the battle finale seen by all sides.

"Oh dear christ…" Kai mumbled.

"No, oh god." Yui echoed, burying her face into Kai's coat.

"that's…" Yama began, at a loss for words.

"Leo…" Greyson said simply, a light pain striking his stomach as he saw what had happened.

Leonidas was standing, hunching over Reaper, both of his claws holding the scythe's blade, which was embedded into where the Darkus Bakugan's collar bone would be if it was human. Similarly, Reaper held the length of the scythe upward, the polearm's endpoint sharpened due to how his foe had snapped it. The handle was pointed upwards, traveling through Leonidas' torso area, and coming out the other side, bypassing all natural armour he had. Leonidas was panting, holding on to his battle form despite his wounds, small tesla arcs dancing across his muzzle occasionally. Reaper was also breathing, though in a much quieter manner, also preserving energy in an attempt to stay in the battle despite his injuries. This backward and forward of just breathing went on for a while, nobody saying anything during the time. A minute of silence must have passed before Reaper broke it.

" **Your… Name…?** " Reaper asked between breathes, his grip on the polearm handle still strong, yet he made no further attempts to drive it into his opponent.

" **Leo… Leonidas.** " Leonidas responded, claws still affixed to the weapons blade, using it more so as a support at this point then a weapon.

" **Reaper…** " he added, feeling it was only fitting to put in his own introduction. " **It… Was a difficult fight… You are a… Strong… Warrior Leonidas.** " he continued, talking draining more of his energy than he thought. Leonidas simply grinned in response, laughing a little before ceasing, attempting not to cough up whatever fluids were inside him onto his enemy.

" **I look forward… To our next battle.** " the angel of death concluded, letting go of the polearm as his hands fell limp, his energy almost completely diminished. " **Yeah…** " Leonidas began, hardly noticing a building white glow all around them.

" **Me too.** "

Greyson opened his eyes, not sure what to expect when the white glow had overpowered his vision, forcing him to shut them in order to avoid going blind. They adjusted to the darker environment quickly, Grey noticing the lack of a field and the softness of the terrain. They were back under the tunnel, the sounds of cars and freighters above them grounding everyone back into reality.

"We're… We're back…" Greyson said, squinting slightly as his senses adjusted to the busy sounds of Wardington. "Wait… LEO?!" he said, switching his tone as his eyes darted, looking for his Bakugan.

" **Errrgh…** "

Greyson looked downward, seeing the now Darkus ball form of Leonidas sitting in the dirt. "Oh thank god…" he said breathless, quickly running over and crouching, gently scooping up his beast in his hands and brushing the dirt off.

"I spared him for you." a voice came, Grey looking up from his crouching position to see Masquerade, already holding the closed ball form of Reaper in his hand. "It would be a shame to let a Bakugan like that waste away in the Doom Dimension." he continued, turning and walking toward the tunnel in the magically formed wall from before.

"I think we all know that's crap!" Kai said loudly, taking a step forward, Masquerade turning slightly, the slick grin on his face lowering slightly. "You were not in control of that situation, we all saw that!" he continued, the grin on the frenchmans face fully wiped off.

"Yeah, y-you didn't know who was gonna win!" Yui added, also taking a step forward. "your Bakugan almost lost despite having a gpower advantage and more combat experience, that scares you!" Yama concluded, joining his peers. Masquerade sighed for a moment, placing Reaper upon his shoulder before turning and walking toward the tunnel. "Au revoir Greyson Noboru." he said, entering the darkness of the tunnel and disappearing within.

"Hey, wait!" Grey began, trying to think of what to say next, pausing for a few seconds. "Grey?" Kai prompted, the person in question turning to look at him. "When did you give him your full name?" he asked, cocking his head to the side slightly. There was a moment of silence as the cogs in Greyson's mind turned before he charged.

"YOU GET BACK HERE MARMALADE!" Greyson roared, charging into the tunnel, ignoring everyone's warnings to "stop" and "wait!". " **Kid, WAIT!** " a voice came from within his hand, muffled as he entered the dark tunnel, no lighting within it whatsoever.

"HOW'D YOU KNOW MY NAME, WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS, WHO ARE YOU-

" _ **THUD"**_

A few moments of silence passed, Yama, Yui, and Kai all stopping in their tracks, fearing for what might have happened to their friend.

"I've hit a wall!"

" **He's hit a wall!** "

This news came to the relief of everyone, Grey stumbling out of the tunnel, Leonidas floating near him. "I hit a wall…" he repeated, holding his nose and praying it wouldn't start bleeding, a thought slightly dampened by its comparison to the battle finale from earlier. "He got away…" Kai said, sounding slightly disheartened. "Yeah… Magic Magic-squerade they should call him…" Grey responded, looking up after noticing Yui's face. "Yui, are you-" he began before he was interrupted by her, Yui hugging him tightly and crying. "Grey I'm sorry!" he cried, holding her friend. "You didn't get Terrorclaw back, you lost Serpenoid, you-"

"Hey now, hey!" he replied, taking hold of Yui's shoulders and stabilizing her. "Sure, Terrorclaw and Serpenoid are gone, and thats…"

"Crappy?" Kai asked.

"Yeah, crappy… But it doesn't matter! We're gonna get them back!" Greyson continued, looking into the eyes of his friend. "R-really?" Yui asked, wiping her face with her sleeve. "Yeah… Yeah! We're gonna take down that masked maniac and get our- NO, ALL OF THE BAKUGAN HE TOOK BACK!" Greyson said, Yui seeing a fire burning in his eyes. "Hell yeah we are!" Kai added, stepping beside Yui and gripping her shoulder. "YES, OR WE AREN'T THE BAKUGAN BATTLE BRAWLERS!" Yama roared, also joining the crew. "Y-yeah… Yeah! Let's do it!" Yui said, the sadness in her replaced by passion.

"Yeah, together we're gonna take Masquerade down!" Greyson roared, shoving a fist into the air.

"YEAH" everyone echoed, doing the same.

"The walls gone by the way." Kai added plainly.

"WAIT, WHAT-

 _ **12:41AM: Noboru Residence**_

Leonidas was jolted from his rest, not by a loud exterior sound, but from the messages his sleeping mind was showing him. He popped open, only then noticing the shaking, the horrible shaking. Leonidas arrested him, stopping it in a matter of seconds before looking out the window, having been previously sleeping on the windowsill as he did the night before, thinking as he viewed the stars.

"You know you talk in your sleep."

Leonidas spun around, looking toward the source of the noise. Greyson was sitting on his bed, holding his knees close to his chest, looking at the Darkus Bakugan with a mix of concern and curiosity. Leonidas quickly spun away, closing his form off slightly as he stared down at the windowsil's surface.

"How'd you know about the Doom Dimension?" Grey asked, resting his chin on his knees as he continued looking at the Bakugan. "I…" Leonidas began, trailing off quickly after, further turning away from Greyson. "You can tell me Leo." the brawler responded. "I trust you.". Leonidas turned slightly, his eye just barely able to make out Greyson's form. " **Trust.** " he thought, his predatory brain unable to make emotional sense of this. "The Doom Dimension, it's… I know it because…" Leonidas began once again, incapable of getting his thoughts straight. He felt vulnerable, a sensation his instincts told him to get rid of. Leonidas clapped shut with a snap, clamping into his ball form with a grunt. Grey sighed, unsure of what he was expecting the result of this conversation to be, instead thinking of what he should say next.

"My offer still stands… Goodnight Leo."

Leonidas made out the sounds of some rustling fabric before silenced once again overtook the room. He thought about what Greyson said; his offer still stands…

 _ **7:15AM: Noboru Residence**_

Grey woke up, quickly moving to silence the repetitive sound of his phone alarm. He switched it off, picked up the device, and made a quick browse of a few applications before putting it back down, then sitting up in bed before standing onto the floor. He was about to walk forward when something stopped him, a presence.

Greyson looked behind him, seeing a small purple and black sphere noticeably closer than he previously remembered.

* * *

 _ **And Now a Preview of Next Week's Episode: Reckless Endangerment**_

"No one hurts the Darkness Pupper on my watch!"

* * *

So I thought the first episode was long at 30 pages of a google doc. This was 37. Yay. It took longer than episode 1 to write as well, and I'm not entirely happy in how Yui essentially dominates Shuji during the fight, but I feel like it fits (Dan did score a flawless victory in his battle). The next episode will likely be A LOT shorter due to the content of the anime episode, and the story finally starts to branch off during it, so I'm excited to start writing. I'm also going to attempt to give each brawler their own battle style based on their attribute (picture how Yui used Haos Saurus as support for a Pyrus Hynoid sweeper). Until next week, enjoy!

This is Leo Four, signing off.


	3. E3: Reckless Endangerment

**Character development… HNNNNNNNG, I love to talk about how great it is despite the fact that I'm not that good at it, but regardless, hope that the emotional scenes convey actual emotion and they aren't just two mannequins speaking in monotone. Also, if something seems off to you or you especially like something, leave a review and tell me what it is and why, it helps A LOT (this is my first major project after all). Enjoy All Knighter: Reckless Endangerment!**

* * *

While having been previously awoken by the alarm, he chose to stay closed, preferring to wait to be alone before acclimatizing himself to his surroundings.

 _Tp tp tp… Clank._

He opened himself slightly, looking out of his shell. Greyson had exited the room, closing the door behind him. He was alone.

Leonidas popped open fully, taking a moment to rotate around and view his surroundings. Greyson's room was as it had been the previous night, the Darkus Bakugan still sitting on his window sill.

Leonidas looked below himself for a moment before looking over toward Grey's bed. Had he moved closer? Regardless, he quickly tuned his sense of hearing, curious as to what was going on downstairs.

"Here you go sweetie!" a more feminine voice came.

"Thanks Mom… Bye Dad.". Distinctly Greyson's voice.

"See you later bud!". This one was male, definitely. Leonidas continued listening, hearing the clanking of a door, probably the front, before the area was once again overtaken by the sounds of the kitchen. Pots clanking, the sink running, a pleasant smell wafted upstairs and tempted Leonidas to investigate the lower level. He glanced outside for a moment, the mechanical roar of an engine drawing his attention, an automobile pulling out of the driveway, reversing into the road, and driving off. Granted, Leonidas had no idea what any of these were called, their names dancing as a curiosity in his head while his mind moved to other thoughts, mainly those of what Grey had said last night…

"I trust you."

"My offer still stands."

Why would the child trust him? What had he done to warrant it? He hadn't been nice to him at all yet Greyson acted like a guardian in return. Leonidas grumbled, confused and unsure of what to do next. Until he heard Greyson coming back up the stairs that is, Leo unsure of how long he had been lost in his own head for.

Grey opened the door and entered, not taking particular note of Leonidas, who had previously shut himself off. He walked toward his closet, getting changed out of his sleeping attire and into day clothes, sporting an outfit familiar to Leo. The Darkus Bakugan opened slightly, meekly observing as his brawler picked up a school bag and began placing things into it. Pencils, notebooks, other items that Leonidas also didn't know the name of, he only realized then that he was indeed an alien to this world, and it would likely benefit him to have more information, among other things, on it.

" **Hey…** "

Greyson cocked his head over from his desk to the origin of the sound, seeing Leonidas' open Darkus ball form sitting on the windowsill, looking at him with inquisitive eyes. His suspicion from before was confirmed; Leonidas had moved some distance along the window ledge toward him, now essentially next to the middle of the bed, staring at him. "Hey." Grey responded, his voice slightly more enthusiastic than the Bakugan's. " **Why did you say you trusted me?** " Leonidas asked bluntly, as if he wasn't asking but making a statement. Grey thought for a moment, the answer popping into his head rather quickly. "Because I do trust you." he replied, placing a few more items into his bag. " **Why?** " Leonidas inquired once again, the human detecting a distinct hint of aggression in his voice, attempting to think of a response before the Bakugan's temper grew angry. "Well… Because you trust me." Greyson said plainly, hooking his backpack onto his back, turning to face Leonidas, hands on the straps. " **What?** " the Darkus draconian responded, his voice almost monotone, his confusion clear. "Think about it." Grey prompted, walking closer to Leonidas before getting onto the bed, kneeling on it and looking directly at him.

"You got shot out of a white light, you had no idea where you were, and yet you trusted me as a brawler for you."

Leonidas turned sideways, considering the information provided to him.

"And when we fought Masquerade, you went against an enemy that, well, you were clearly scared of… But still you trusted me enough to brawl together!" Greyson continued, tilting his head slightly and smiling. "You see?".

The Darkus Leonidas continued staring at the ground, still processing the information given to him. He had indeed trusted the child to brawl with him even after his enigmatic entry, he chose to indulge his violent nature, he was there during the brawl with the frenchman…

"I know you moved closer after I talked to you last night." the brawler added, hunching slightly to meet the Bakugan at eye level. This was something he could not deny, he had moved closer. On his own authority no less. The child was right, and though Leonidas felt some force inside himself told him not to, he said what he intended to anyway.

"Last night. You said your offer still stood?" he inquired, his voice sounding somewhat meek. Like if his aggressive tone was not a result of personality but as if he was putting it on, putting up a facade. "Yeah… You wanna take me up on it?" Greyson confirmed, tilting his head to the side once again. Leonidas looked up at the human, his eyes glazing over his grey hair and discolored eyes, green on the left, blue on the right. He then looked away, looking out the window at the warm Wardington skyline.

"I… I don't know where I am, or what I am… I feel like I'm lost and I'm meant to go somewhere but I don't know where that is and… I don't know anything about this world… I want to learn… **So I can do what I was meant to, so I can find out what I was meant to do!** "

Sensing the return of Leonidas' passionate yet aggressive tone brought Greyson some relief, though his minds was more occupied on what the Bakugan had just said. What I was meant to do… Nevertheless, Grey wasn't going to sit there in silence. "Is that your roundabout way of saying yes?" he asked, lowering his head so it was below Leo's, an attempted sign of respect on his part. Leonidas remained silent for a long time, looking down at the surface of his perch while Greyson waited intently for an answer.

" **Yes…** " Leonidas replied.

"Well then Darkus Leonidas…" Grey began, holding an open palm out toward the Bakugan, offering a new perch. "Partners?". The creature in question quickly rotated, looking down at the new platform for a moment before doing something that would change his very existence forever.

" **Partners!** " he responded, hopping into the palm of Grey's hand as the the typical tone of his voice returned in full power. Greyson smiled, closing his hand around the now ball form Leonidas. "Yeah… It'll be great." he said warmly, then trying to come up with some final way to finish the conversation in a better way.

But he didn't. It'll be great is what it was, great is what it would be.

Greyson placed Leonidas into his pocket, the small creature poking his head out in order to maintain clear communication with his brawler. The child then exited his room, navigated through his house, went out the front door, and walked into a bright new day, lit by the warm Wardington sun in a blue sky.

School went on as a usual day would, given the extra fact that, having cemented a partnership, Leonidas seemed much more talkative and curious than his previous behavior would imply, Grey being asked several questions that a typical five year old would.

" **What is that?** "

" **What are those things?** "

" **What is the light in the sky called?** "

It did make sense Grey thought, given Leo was new to the world and didn't have the years of experience living in it that Greyson did. Nethertheless, time moved on as it normally would, class passed by, and eventually the final bell rang, signalling the release of the Wardington youth. As was the common routine, Greyson headed toward the school atrium, prepared to spectate, and possibly participate in the fighting.

"Thas' pretty cool!" Kai said, sitting aside Grey on one of the atrium tiers, sipping from his usual beverage (whose straw was impaled into the bottom of the box). "What got em to change?" he asked, his omni-attributed accomplice digging through his bag in a search for his brawling equipment. "I dunno…" Grey replied, glancing down at his pocket and hearing the faint sound of a Darkus Bakugan snoozing. "Maybe he grew on me." he speculated. "I am AMAZING after all!" Greyson concluded, adding a hint of theatrical flair to his words, leading Kai to chuckle and ruffle his compatriots hair. "You're a riot Grey." he said, smiling. "I know!" Greyson replied, continuing his fake theatrisism and subtle undertone.

"HEY NERD!"

"Oh dear god why me…"

Greyson and Kai looked up from their conversation and the former's bag excavation project to see Shuji, standing there like he owned the building, pointing a finger at Grey as if he was prosecuting him for murder. "Hey Gray, or whatever your name is-"

"It's Greyson, yeah…"

"- I want a rematch! Mono e mono!" the boy said, almost yelling as he did so. Grey took a moment, noting on how Shuji lacked his traditional accompaniment in Akira, which did make sense given the environment they found themselves in. He then shot a glance at Kai, sucking on his juice box like a child and looking back at him, giving a shrug. "If you want to…" he said, finishing the contents of the box with juice in it before lobbing it at a nearby trash can.

It missed.

Greyson simply shrugged back, reaching into his bag and, after a moment of searching by feeling, pulling out his brawling gear. "Alright Shuji, I'll take you on." he said, smiling a warmly smile. "That is if you're so intent on losing 24/7.". "HA, NO WAY I'M GONNA LOSE AGAIN!" Shuji replied as Greyson stood up, affixing his equipment to himself, then walking over to face his opponent, pulling a field card. Leonidas, having been awoken by the prior almost-yelling of Shuji, quickly floated upward and out of Grey's pocket, his Darkus shell popping open as he neared his brawler's shoulder, perching on it. " **We gonna fight?** " he inquired, Grey glancing down at his shoulder, giving him a stern nod and a grin. Leonidas responded similarly, giving an aggressive " **Hmmp** " before shutting into ball form, his brawler picking him up in his free hand before looking back to Shuji, who also had a field card primed. "Let's do this Leonidas!" Grey roared, flipping his field card as it glowed in synchronization with Shuji's.

" _ **FIELD OPEN!"**_

The attribute wheel materialized on the ground below the two brawlers and began to spin, a veil of coloured light surrounding them as reality began to warp. Kai also stepped into the ring, wishing to see the action, but something else caught his attention as he did so. Outside, somewhere in the distance, he saw another light pillar, a Bakugan field definitely. "Huh, guess someone else is brawlin', neat." he noted before looking back forward, the field's formation masking his view of the formation. "This fight'll be more interesting anyway." Kai thought, sticking his hands in his pockets and preparing to watch the show.

Meanwhile however, an intertwining destiny was placing its roots down in another pocket dimension, notable as the field Kai had seen just before Shuji and Grey had begun their fight, inside this miniature world, a battle had already began.

Stinglash quickly skated to the side, using the tips of its numerous legs to quickly locomote circles around the slower Juggernoid it was fighting against. The Pyrus Stinglash quickly skated through a wave of fire provided by the gate card, claws outstretched, prepared to strike at its Aquos opponent. Quick to respond despite a typically slow nature, the Juggernoid foe retreated into its shell, Stinglashes claws making barely a dent into the thick carapace. "Hey Juggernoid!" a voice came, the Pyrus Bakugan looking toward the source; Juggernoid's brawler.

Rikimaru was average height, red hair blazing outward like a star. His dress included a white undershirt, a blue long jean jacket, grey pants, average shoes, and a chain worn around his neck. The Aquos brawler drew an ability card, raising it and yelling; "DEPTH TORNADO!", leading the card to glow in a blew light, Riki launching it outward toward his Bakugan. Juggernoid roared, retreating into its shell as its body began floating into the air, a whirlpool of water erupting below it. Stinglash quickly retreated backwards, moving to a defensive stance, stinger poised and claws ready. The whirlpool below Juggernoid continued to expand as the Bakugan began to spin, the water soon reaching his Pyrus foe's feet, quickly destabilizing the insectoid and sending it screeching toward the epicentre of the move. Rikimaru grinned, watching as his foe's Bakugan was dragged closer and closer to its demise, soon finding itself under the mass of the still swiftly rotating Juggernoid. "You're done! Juggernoid go-" Riki began, finding himself interupted.

"Stinglash Ability Activate: Frame Fire!"

Rikimaru's opponent, who we will call Rusty as that is his name, held forth a glowing red rectangle, its Pyrus power being quickling transfer to the boy's Stinglash. A coating of fire quickly enveloped Stinglash, displacing the water around it and disintegrating the whirlpool, its liquid form dissipating into nothing rapidly. The Pyrus Bakugan in question quickly looked up and grabbed the spinning Juggernoid's shell with its flaming claws, arresting its momentum instantly. It was but a moment before Stinglash opened its jaws and spewed out a burning fire toward its now captive opponent, Juggernoid roaring in pain before Rikimaru's scarred vision was overtaken by a wall of light.

"I… Lost…" he said, dropping to his knees as his Juggernoid's ball form bounced off the ground and rolled toward him. "I LOST AGAIN!" Riki yelled, his voice having a tone of despair one would typically find at a funeral. "Of course you did." a voice came, Rikimaru looking up to see Rusty standing there, his accomplice standing a bit further back on his phone. Rusty wore a simple tan overcoat and a red undershirt, sporting a pair of casual track pants and sneakers, his maroon coloured hair glowing under the sun. His accomplice as far as Riki could see wore a similar outfit, grey hoodie, cobalt hair, jeans, and a pair of hiking boots. "I used Pyrus Normal, my Bakugan's gpower was over 300 units higher than yours." Rusty explained, adjusting his square glasses on his face in an attempt to look intelligent. "Even if depth tornado had worked, Stinglash would have still beaten your Bakugan to the curb.". "B-but…" Riki began, Rusty walking closer as he began to tear up. "I couldn't… I just…" he continued to continue, distracted as a hand appeared in front of his face, leading him to look up. His opponent had lowered himself to a crouch, offering a hand to help Rikimaru up. "You can do better, you just need to think before you act, you know?" he said, giving a small smile and a helpful look.

 _ **SMACK**_

Rusty stumbled back, falling onto his backside as he quickly pulled his hand to cover a now painful spot on his face. "Rusty!" a second voice came, the boys accomplice running over to see if he was okay. Rusty meanwhile, had his vision directed straight forward, as was his hearing, at the boy who had just struck him over the face. "I AM GOOD AT BAKUGAN, YOU JUST CAN'T SEE THAT!" Riki yelled, stumbling to his feet, basically crying at this point. "Rusty, are you alright?" his friend asked, kneeling down and examining the bright red mark left by Rikimaru's impact, running a hand against it gently. "I'm fine Indigo, it's okay…" he replied, looking up at his opponent, face distraught with tears and "suffrage". "This is why no one wants to brawl with you Riki!" Indigo yelled, moving his head and looking directly into Maru's upset eyes. "You're just a big baby who can't accept that he isn't as good as he thinks he is!" he continued, pointing at his with a free hand, the other one held by Rusty. "NO! SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" was Rikimaru's "reply" before the boy turned around and booked off, crying like a young child.

A few seconds of confused silence past before the duo said anything.

"Are you actually okay?" Indigo asked, placing a hand gently over the mark Riki had left. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine…" Rusty responded, looking up at the still fleeing Rikimaru,gripping his companion's other hand tightly. "He's some piece of work though…". "Yeah." Indigo confirmed.

"Thank god the only thing he can hurt is his own ego."

Meanwhile, in a similar timeframe as the previous events, a second battle was raging in its own pocket of reality. Shuji watched helplessly as his Haos Bakugan went flying back toward him in ball form, bouncing to a stop before rolling near his feet, eventually hitting his shoe to arrest its momentum. The Darkus Griffon it had once called its opponent looked down at them, mild sparks still dancing around its horn as his face shifted to a grin, the chimera letting out a victory roar, almost destabilizing the now Haos brawler as he looked down at the light Bakugan near his foot. "Dang it, you trashed my Serpenoid!" Shuji yelled in frustration, the mention of the Bakugan's name sending bad echoes through his head. "That tends to happen when you go up against me!" Greyson replied, shrugging and putting on a face as Griff returned to ball form, shooting down and landing into his hand. "Huh, that actually worked." he thought, lowering his arms and looking at his now ball form beast. "Good job Griff!" the brawler said, rubbing the Darkus Bakugan with his index finger, who responded by raising and lowering its wing, communicating his pride. There was two more gate cards set down on the field, 3 battles had been fought by far, Greyson winning two of them. Just one more was needed in order for him to win. The bad news was that Shuji owned both remaining gate cards, and throwing down his own was a one way trip to having cross card abilities played on him. Grey began to think about what he could do to turn the odds to his favour-

"BAKUGAN BRAWL!"

"Problem solved!" he said plainly as Shuji launched out a Bakugan at the gate card closest to Grey, his projectile rolling to a stop before popping open. A wave of light expanded outward as the beast opened, everyone present squinting slightly as a Haos Mantris rose from the vortex. The insectoid slowly pulled itself out of the terrain via its quad legs, rising up and staring down at its foes, blades primed. "It's always a Mantris with him isn't it?" Greyson noted, glancing over to the Darkus Leonidas perched on his shoulder, who turned and gave him a similar look. " **Let me at em!** " the Bakugan said, the excitement and aggression in his voice clear. "Let's do it!" Grey responded, quickly taking hold of Leonidas and arching his arm back.

"Bakugan Brawl!"

Greyson shot Leonidas at the gate card at velocity, the Bakugan winding between Mantris' legs before rolling to a stand. A dark field of energy shot out from the terrain, concealing the Darkus monster's form as his stand commenced. Darkus Leonidas flew upward out of the field, dark energy still dissipating off his body like volcanic ash as he did so. He quickly lowered himself onto the field in a controlled descent as Mantris turned to face him, his contact with the terrain still making some impact despite his slow downward speed. The dark draconian made eye contact with his foe, his breath sounding like miniature roars, while the opposing insectoid simply stood there, as if its body was paused, triggering a natural alarm within Grey, who quickly consulted his bakupod for more data.

"Haos Mantris 320 g's, Darkus Leonidas 340 g's." it chimed. Leonidas had the advantage, which was why Grey was suspicious as to why Shuji hadn't done anything to counteract. Usually he would lead with an ability card or something, but instead Mantris laid still, unmoving. "Oh my god, he's actually using some sort of strategy…" Kai noted, Greyson just hearing him due to his distance before his focus was averted; Leonidas was ready to pounce, and he assumed the Bakugan would do it with or without his authority. "Alright, I'll go first!" he said, pulling an ability card and hoisting it in front of himself, still wary of Mantris' movement.

"Ability Activate: Theta Claw!"

Leonidas' claws glowed a purple light as the ability card Greyson held disintegrated, its energy quickly jumping to the Bakugan. The Darkus monster raised its clawed hands, which quickly were enveloped in a dark energy, extending them into razor sharp blades, prime for cutting. Leonidas grinned for a second before averting his focus to Mantris, bending his knees and preparing. He then launched himself at the Haos Bakugan, claws outstretched forward. " **YOU'RE GOIN' DOWN INSECT!** " he roared, delivering a cross slash across his foe, who responded by raising its arms to block, using its blades as a sort of shield. Not to be deterred, Leonidas quickly delivered a second attack, and then a third, his move shifting into a flurry of slashes that the insectoid Bakugan was clearly having a hard time resisting.

"Haos Mantris power decrease to 270 g's, Darkus Leonidas power increase to 390 g's." Greyson's bakupod chimed, the brawler quickly looking back up at the fight. This was indeed odd, Shuji had not activated a counter ability, nore did his Mantris make any meaningful attempt to counter.

"GATE CARD OPEN: SUPERNOVA!"

It was the gate card.

The terrain beneath Leonidas and Mantris glowed in a white light, its effect taking hold immediately. Leonidas felt his energy drain while Mantris felt itself being empowered, the former not giving up on its assault despite this, continuing to slash at its foe. "Haos Mantris power increase to 390 g's, Darkus Leonidas power decrease to 270 g's." Grey's bakupod chimed, the brawler being sent into a mild panic as Mantris switched its strategy from a defensive one to an offensive. The Haos insectoid quickly swung its claws outward, making an impact against Leonidas and sending him backward, struggling to regain his balance. "Your toast now!" Shuji roared, a sentence that for once might actually hold true. "Leonidas, go defensive!" Greyson commanded, knowing an offense would be both dangerous and ineffective, his confidence dying as he saw the look on Leonidas' face.

" **Oh, YOU'RE DEAD NOW!** " he roared, the Bakugan immediately charging back toward his opponent, who was now not only ready to fight, but it now also had a power advantage. "Leo, wait!" his brawler yelled, only to find his focus once again averted as Shuji engaged the second tier of his plan.

"ABILITY CARD ACTIVATE: SLICE CUTTER!"

Mantris' bladed claws quickly began glowing in a Haos light, extending in a similar manner to Leonidas' Theta Claw; equally as sharp, equally as harmful. It was at this point that the Darkus Bakugan of the battle realized his mistake, attempting to arrest his momentum and drive himself backward via his wings.

But it was too late.

Leonidas quickly realized the impact was inevitable, and instead drove his clawed feet into the terrain, quickly slowing him down, yet not to a level where he could dodge the unmoving Mantris. His Haos foe quickly swung both of its glowing blades downward, Leo responding by quickly swinging his claws upward and grabbing the incoming razors. He grunted, the pain of holding two knives back being rather pronounced, before Leo glanced over at Greyson, who was already regretfully priming a response.

"Ability Activate: Rho Gun!"

Still struggling, Leonidas watched impatiently as the energy from Grey's glowing ability card transferred to his wing tips, electrical energy continuing to build up as the ground beneath him began to indent due to the force behind Mantris' attack. "C'mon, COME ON!" roared, feeling the full straint the attack was placing upon him. Rho Gun, as if it had been listening, came to the rescue, the energy converging in the tips of Leonidas' wings, primed to fire. And fire they did, two thin beams of Darkus energy launching at Mantris' blades, Rho Gun's effect taking hold as they lost their Haos glow near instantly.

" **HAHAHA! HOW'D YA LIKE THAT!** " Leonidas roared, pushing forward at Mantris' still incoming claws, weakening their leverage somewhat. Matris responded, making a sound that was likely the insectoid equivalent to a grunt before quickly sliding its blades out of Leo's grip, disbalancing the Darkus Bakugan as he fell forward somewhat. Quickly shooting a knee out, Leonidas stabilized himself before he hit the ground, glancing his head upward after a moment of recovering.

 **SHRRRRING**

The Darkus ball form quickly shot back at Greyson, who failed at an attempt to catch it. Mantris, satisfied with its victory, let out a sort of insectoid roar, not too dissimilar to Griffon's previous one, before returning to ball form, firing backward at an ecstatic Shuji. "I WON! HECK YEAH!" he yelled, jumping up and down excitedly after catching his returning champion. Kai observed this, partly annoyed by the ego trip Shuji was on about his single victory, before shifting his focus to Grey, who had walked over to pick up Leonidas' ball form. Greyson slowly picked up the ball form of Leonidas, cupping his hand as the Bakugan popped open. " **What just…** " he began, a clear level of disorientation in his voice. 'Well, Mantris sprung a trap on you, I told you to back the heck up, you promptly didn't do that, and then you got slashed by it since it still had the higher gpower." Greyson summarized, a level of annoyance in his voice equal to Leo's confusion. "You mean I…" Leonidas started, his voice and Grey's focus on him trailing off as the brawler's attention was diverted back toward his opponent, yelling like an excited child.

"I WON, I DID IT, I BEAT YOUR STRONGEST BAKUGAN!" Shuji roared, clear wonder and excitement behind his voice. "The fight ain't over yet big guy!" Kai yelled back, crossing his arms and looking to Greyson, nodding his head for him to continue. "Yeah… Yeah! You've still got a long way to go Shuji!" Greyson added, glancing down at Leonidas for a second before placing him into his pocket, drawing out his previous Darkus Bakugan in reserve. "I'll deal with you later…" he murmured, instead shifting his focus to the Griffon in his hand. "Let's do this Griff!".

"Bakugan Brawl!"

" _ **Aaaattte**_ ention staff and students, anyone wishing to participate in this week's art club should head up to the Art Lab immediately."

The sound of reality turning to normal coincided with the field collapse, the pure white terrain and elemental skies of the field being replaced by the flooring and roof structure of the school atrium. Greyson let out a loud sigh as he caught his Bakugan, the look of surprise still permeating Kai's face. "Dude, did Shuji just-" he began, before being interrupted by the boy in question.

"YEEEHAW, I WON!" Shuji roared, thrusting his Bakugan above his head like a sports player holding a trophy. "I BEAT GREYSAN, I BEAT GREYSAN!". "Yeah, you did." Greysan responded, Shuji stopping himself, surprised by the calm nature of his opponents response. "Pretty good strategy, springing trap cards then blitzkrieging my Bakugan. Good job!" he continued, giving his foe a thumbs up, which Shuji responded to with a happy grunt and a grin. "That was nice." Kai said, Grey returning his brawling gear to his bag and slinging it onto his back. "You really mean everything you said there?".

"Yeah, but next time I see him I'm gonna-"

Meanwhile, in a location the brawlers frequented frequently, another story was unfolding, one that would soon cross over into our heroes' own timeline. Rikimaru continued running through the woods, tears streaming down his face as his ramblings went on. "I'm not weak, I'm not weak, I'm a good brawler, I really am-" he repeated, the boy grinding to a halt as a feeling of dread and fear entered him, seemingly from nowhere.

"So, you want to be strong?" a voice came, Rikimaru swinging around to its source. A shadowy figure stood on a thick tree branch, one leg against the trunk of the plant. He had a calm stature, and though he was somewhat shadowed, a gleaming mask came shining through the darkness. "W-who are-" Riki began, interrupted once again as a projectile came shooting toward him, the boy struggling as he attempted to catch it. Opening his hand over the acquired object, a blue Bakugan sat in his palm, Rikimaru recognizing it from the web, which he regularly surfed like the cool square he was.

"It's an Aquos Siege, a strong warrior." the figure said. "If you can defeat Greyson Noboru and his Leonidas with it, you may keep it.". "R-really?" Rikimaru replied, looking down at the Bakugan with a sense of childlike wonder in his voice. "I wouldn't lie to you. Farewell Rikimaru." the figure concluded, Riki looking up to him, only to find that he was gone. "H-hey, WAIT!" he said, somewhat panicked.

"Who the heck is Greyson Noboru!?"

Masquerade had not disappeared at all in fact. He had simply jumped down from his perch and began moving through the brush out of the Aquos brawler's field of view, leaving Rikimaru with a sense of wonder to who he was. Reaper popped open on the Darkus brawlers shoulder, curious as to his operational philosophy. " **Why did you sent a child after Leonidas?** " he asked, bobbing over slightly to see his master's face. "Chances are that Leonidas isn't worth our time. That Aquos Siege should be more than enough to put him out of commision, even if the brawler is a bit… Unskilled." Masquerade explained, his face looking dead forward as he continued walking. "Why? It sounds as if you want to fight him again.". " **Well…** " Reaper began, stopping himself sensing his master's curiosity. " **It's nothing.** " he concluded, closing back into ball form and retreating into a coat pocket. Nevertheless, Reaper couldn't help but wonder about his previous foe. " **I wonder what he's doing right now…** " he thought, slowly letting himself drift off.

" **What is he doing right now…** "

"Are you alright?"

" **...** "

"Are you stewing?"

" **Yes…** "

"Do you want me to use the toothbrush?"

" **...** "

"I can't hear you."

" **Yes…** "

Grey smiled, picking up the Darkus Bakugan and the Lance of Silence's Demise, otherwise known as a toothbrush, beginning to gently brush his companion. "So you like, lost the fight?" Yui asked in confirmation, her face brightly lit up by her computer screen. Greyson had since retreated home, having set up a voice call on his laptop, resigning himself to an afternoon of relaxation and online gaming. "Yeah, thanks to a CERTAIN SOMEONE deciding that bull charging an opponent with a high power rating was a good idea…" Grey responded, looking down at Leonidas with mild frustration, the Bakugan providing no comment aside from a simple; " **Ahhhhh, that's that spot…** ". "Speaking of Bakugan, Yama, heard anything from our friend in the white coat?" Kai inquired, slowly screwing the cap off of a large carton of his favourite beverage. "Yeah…" Yama responded, the sound of his typing on his computer fully audible to all. "he's gone completely dark, from the talk of the trown… talk of the town to a ghost, no one has any news on him at all." he continued, looking back up at the webcam.

"his last brawl that any of us should know about was with grey and leonidas."

"I guess we must have scared him out of Wardington for good! Guy couldn't handle our extreme powa!" Greyson responded, spinning around in his chair, arresting his momentum as soon as Leonidas spoke up. " **I didn't win that fight. It was… A draw.** " he said, his voice somewhat muffled due to his closed form. "What? What do you mean?" Grey asked, tilting his head slightly as Leonidas popped open. " **Reaper ended that fight as a draw intentionally. If he wanted to, he could have rammed that polearm right through me and sent me h… To the Doom Dimension.** " he explained, Greyson ceasing his toothbrush movement. "Could that be why the field collapsed?" Alice questioned after a moment of silence. "Probably." Kai responded. "Neat…" Greyson added. "But why would Reaper-" he started, being interrupted before he could finish his sentence.

"Greyson, could you come down here please?"

"Comin' Mom!" he replied, quickly swiveling back to his laptop. "I'll catch you guys later." he said, turning off the voice call and shutting the device, absent mindedly placing Leonidas into his pocket as he headed out of his room and down the stairs.

The lower floor of Greyson's house was a simple affair, a living room, a front door, a kitchen area, a bathroom door, and a back door. Grey naturally headed into the kitchen, where his mother laid waiting. "What's up Mom?" he asked, entering the kitchen as he ran a hand through his hair.

Grey's mother was an average woman, having brown hair similar to that of her son's before an incident involving a lighting storm and a baseball bat. She wore an orange and white hoodie, paired with blue jeans and fluffy pink socks, and was busy dicing up vegetables when Greyson walked in. "Grey, would you mind running to the market over the river? I forgot to buy beef." she said, looking over her shoulder at her son, both individuals at approximately the same height. "Right now?" he asked, receiving a nod and a smile in confirmation. "Alright!" he confirmed, turning and heading toward the door, noting that he still had his brawling gear hooked to his hip, but making no attempt to remove it as he put his shoes on. "I'll be back in a bit!" Grey said, opening the door and exiting the house, striding down the front path, and making his way toward the Wardington Market.

" **Where are you going?** "

Greyson looked down toward his pocket, the small purple and black head of Leonidas poking out and looking back up at him. He hadn't even registered the fact that he had placed him there. "Huh, forgot you were in there." Grey replied, the Darkus Bakugan floating out of its resting place up to the brawler's shoulder, gently landing on it and looking toward the child. The two continued walking for a while in silence, only entertained by the sounds of the urban environment, before eventually Leo spoke up.

" **Hey… Earlier, during the fight…** " Leonidas began, unsure of what exactly he was going to say. "You wondering why you lost?" Grey asked, glancing down at the Bakugan on his shoulder, Leo slightly retreating into his ball form, almost embarrassed. "Well, you see Leo, you-"

" **Don't call me that.** "

"What-"

" **I said don't call me that!** "

Greyson stopped walking for a moment, stopping and looking down at his shoulder, Leonidas staring back at him with fire in his eyes, both of them remaining still for a few seconds before the Bakugan quickly retreated, turning away and staring at the ground, leading to another extended silence.

"Fair enough, I'll stop." Grey said, starting to walk again. The Darkus dragon slowly turned back toward his brawler's face, looking up at him with an intense curiosity.

"You see Leonidas, a Bakugan battle isn't just a free for all, it's more like a chess match. You see…"

" **Reckless?** "

Some time had passed, the Darkus Bakugan on Greyson's shoulder listening intently to his brawler's instruction on why he had lost the fight, quitely noting the changing scenery as the two approached a large white bridge. "Acting without thinking of the consequences Leonidas… You do it a lot actually!" Greyson added, walking along with a spring in his step. The bridge Leonidas had noted was one of many methods of crossing a river that bisected Wardinton's centre from its urban areas, but it was strangely empty during normal hours, with some people even deciding to walk on the street instead of the sidewalk. Not Grey however, who resigned himself to traveling along the sidewalk, a barrier between him and the motorway. " **I'm not reckless!** " the Bakugan retorted. "I think we both know that's a lie." the human responded.

" **Grrrr!** "

"Aww, you know I'm right!"

"HEY YOU!"

Greyson and Leonidas both looked up, a blue coated redhead standing in front of them, pointing toward the brawler as if he was accusing him of murder. "Are you Greyson Noboru?" he questioned, slightly unnerved as the boy continued walking forward despite the accusations. "Yep, that's me." Grey replied, placing two fingers to his forehead and shooting them off, a way of saying hello. "My name is Rikimaru, and I'm here to battle you… Hey wait!" Riki cried, Greyson walking right past him with disinterest. "I'd love to, but I gotta head to the market. See ya around Rikimaru!" he said, continuing on with a usual spring in his step. "B-but, I…" Riki replied, at a loss for words, having fully expected his would be foe to stop.

"" **So you're not going to brawl him?** " Leonidas asked, looking up at Grey with pleading eyes. "Not really in the mood… Also that guy knew my name and probably came here to challenge me specifically… Which is creepy as heck…" he replied, continuing along the bridge as Rikimaru's confused sputters slowly faded from his hearing. " **Hmmmp, I've been waiting for a chance on-** "

"-AND I'VE BEEN SENT BY MASQUERADE TO DEFEAT YOU!"

Greyson stopped dead in his tracks, Leonidas almost rolling off his shoulder due to the sudden stop. Rikimaru, noticing this, grinned intensely, his previously shy and scatterbrained nature melting away as he saw his opponents reaction. "Masquerade…" Grey echoed, his mind going into overdrive as he tried to figure out his next move. " **I take it this means we're fighting?** " Leonidas asked, the aggression and excitement within him almost uncontainable by his voice. "Alright Rikimaru." Greyson said, spinning around and instinctively drawing a field card.

"I didn't know Masquerade sends out housecalls, but I'll take you on!"

Riki grinned, pulling his own field card and holding it close to his chest. "Let's do it then!" he yelled, ready to fight.

" _ **FIELD OPEN!"**_

Reality once more grinded to a halt as the two field cards glowed in their respective lights, the attribute wheel materializing below them, bridging the gap between the two as time began to slow. The slow breeze got slower, and an incoming car arrested itself to a crawl, Greyson actually catching a glimpse of the driver's confused face before it was faded out by the field. White terrain, elemental skies; it was time to brawl.

"Gate Card Set!" was yelled by both brawlers, each of them launching a gate card to the opposite side of the field, the two rectangles expanding to bridge the gap between them. "Blue light, he's an Aquos fighter." Greyson noted, glancing down at his Bakugan holster for a moment, having two in reserve aside from Leonidas, before looking back up to Rikimaru, who he had just noticed was equipped with a Bakugan shooter similar to Masquerade's. " **Not going to lead?** " his Darkus companion asked, a tinge of disappointment in his voice. "I wanna see what he does…" Grey replied, keenly watching his opponents movements, finding his curiosity horrifically satisfied as his foe dropped an all too familiar card down into the terrain.

"Doom Card Set." Rikimaru echoed, the card in question dropping down to the ground, sliding into it like a knife and letting out an array of purple shockwaves. "Theatrical!" Greyson commented loudly, attempting to taunt his opponent, which worked partly, Riki quickly grabbing one of his Bakugan and loading it into his shooter.

"Take this! Bakugan Brawl!"

Juggernoid shot out toward Grey's gate card, rolling to a stop and popping open, a wave of water rising around it as its stand began. The shell of the creature quickly surfaced out the liquid, the Aquos juggernaut striking its legs and head out of its shell, ready to fight. "Aquos Juggernoid 280 g's." Grey's bakupod chimed, the brawler quickly deciding on his next move. "Alright, I'll lead with…" he began, his voice trailing off as he noticed Rikimaru laying down another gate card, this one right beside his already standing one. "He's up to something…" Greyson thought, quickly taking hold of his Darkus Griffon and arching his hand back, still sure on his strategy.

"Bakugan Brawl!"

Griff shot outward toward the same gate card as Juggernoid, arching over the armoured Bakugan and landing with a roll, a dark spiral twisting upward to conceal his standing form. Two wings shot out from a figure within the twister, the hurricane dissipating to reveal the Darkus Griffon floating in the middle of it, letting out a low growl at its opponent. Greyson, knowing it wise not to let his opponent have the time to properly scout the scenario, quickly prepared his next attack, hoisting an ability card up.

"No one hurts the Darkness Pupper on my watch, Ability Activate: Griffon Stance!"

The aerial Darkus Bakugan began glowing in a purple light, the effect of the ability taking hold, preparing Griffon for an array of attacks suited to the scenario. He looked down, observing his opponent who had turned to face him, grinning lightly in a fashion familiar to his brawler. "Rikimaru's play…" Grey noted, staring at his opponent, bound to do something. Riki, seemingly in response to his foes previous move, hoisted an ability card of his own.

"Ability Activate! Dive Mirage!"

Rikimaru's armoured Aquos beast found itself sinking into the terrain of the gate card, the ground itself being converted to a semi-liquidus state beneath it. Juggernoid quickly disappeared from view, the still flying Griffon glancing around in an attempt to get its bearings and find its opponent, a faint glimmer in the corner of his eye alerting him to his foes location. Juggernoid had moved itself via Dive Mirage to Rikimaru's most recently laid down gate card, and was now pulling itself out the watery ground, out of Griffon's range.

" **Hehehe, he's running scared!** " Leonidas mocked. "No… He's definitely up to something…" Grey replied, his brain kicking into thinking mode. "If he intentionally threw down a Bakugan onto a gate card I owned, but then retreated… He's either testing the waters or he's trying to draw more of my Bakugan out." he continued, contemplating his next move, his train of thought brought slightly off balance as Rikimaru launched out yet another gate card, this one landing next to Grey's card and the residency of Griff, expanding in a blue light. Greyson remained silent, watching as Rikimaru launched a Robotallion toward his newly placed card, the Bakugan standing in a whirlpool or Aquos energy, the brawler's mind plucking at straws for what Rikimaru's strategy may be. And then it hit him.

"He's preparing a chain attack." Greyson said, all playfulness fading from his voice, his eyes narrowing at his opponent. " **A what?** " Leonidas questioned, looking toward his brawler's face in confusion. "An attack that needs multiple Bakugan on the field to work, he's probably going to throw down his third and sweep Griff and whatever else I throw down after my next move…" Grey explained, the calm in his voice underlined by a mix of dread and fury.

" **So what's the,** _ **plan**_ **?** "

"He can't activate a chain attack if one of his Bakugan is knocked down."

Greyson looked down at his shoulder, Leonidas looking back up at him with murderous puppy dog eyes, his excitement exploding as the brawler took hold of him. "Leonidas…" Grey began, arching his hand back.

"Take him down!"

" **ON IT!** "

"Bakugan Brawl!"

The Darkus ball form of Leonidas went flying toward Rikimaru's most recent gate card inclusion, Aquos Robotallion standing sentry, the Bakugan bouncing a few times before rolling to a stop. Darkus energy shot upward as the creature's meek ball form was masked, a new figure slowly rising in the negative light, eyes glowing behind its cowl. " **YOU'RE GOING DOWN SHINY!** " Leonidas roared, his aggression fully unhinging as he charged out of his dark vortex, immediately tackling the opposing Robotallion to the ground. This wasn't so much a problem for Greyson as it was before; he needed Leonidas to blitzkrieg the Bakugan to prevent what he assumed under good knowledge was Rikimaru's strategy.

"Aquos Robotallion 300 g's, Darkus Leonidas 340 g's." his bakupod chimed, giving Greyson some boost in confidence. "Alright, this guy's going down!" he mumbled, quickling pulling out an ability card, prepared to assist in Leo's takedown.

"Ability Activate: Water Refrain!"

This was not Grey's voice.

Rikimaru held forth a shining ability card, a blue light transferring its power over to his Robotallion, the energy then draining into the ground, sending ripples across the battlefield as Leonidas began glowing in a blue light. " **What's this huh?** " he questioned, still wrestling with Robotallion, who currently had a massive draconian arm around its neck, almost choking the Bakugan.

"Water Refrain is an ability that makes it so that the opponent can't use any abilities, beat that!" Rikimaru said, shooting a hand out at Greyson, confidence on his sleeve.

"Water Refrain is an ability that makes it so that the opponent can't use any abilities for a short amount of time." Grey responded, satisfied for a moment as Rikimaru did not say anything else, Greyson shifting his focus toward the fight at hand. He couldn't activate any abilities, and he was on a foes gate card, but he did have the higher gpower for now. "Leonidas!" he began, the Bakugan slightly averting its focus from the fight to look at him. "Just kill him, fast!". " **Will do!** " the Bakugan responded, shoving Robotallions head into the ground. "Leonidas has a 40 g advantage, he should be able to do this unless Riki pulls something else…" the brawler noted, watching Rikimaru carefully, his heart dropping as he saw the boy make his move.

"Intercept!"

The card below the two fighting Bakugan suddenly began to glow a blue light, everyone glossing over Rikimaru's terminology jump as the two fighters of the field paused in their places, as if the fight had been frozen in time. Aside from eye movements and breathing, neither fighter made any moves.

"Intercept is a gate card that-

"-Stops the current battle, introduces another Bakugan, I have one myself, you need to stop before you trigger what I think you're going to trigger!"

"Hmmp, a chain attack? Watch me!"

Greyson mumbled something profane as his eyes locked onto the Bakugan being loaded into Riki's shooter. He shot it out with the typical Bakugan brawl, the projectile shooting out toward Leonidas and Robotallion's paused gate card, the Bakugan rolling to a stop and popping open, eyes glowing as a blue light surrounded it. A torrent of water shot upward, further than what Leonidas could see with his frozen head, continuing to rush upward until it was beyond even Grey's view. A knight in shining blue armour, armed with a long spiraled spear jumped out of the spire, aiming itself toward Grey's Bakugan with a leg outstretched, Leonidas locked onto it with his eyes, the rest of his body incapable of movement. The newly spawned Bakugan delivered a heavy kick to the Darkus dragon's shoulder just as the gate card registered its entry, Leonidas going flying back to the near edge of the terrain as the fight returned to normal.

"You okay Leo… Nidas?!"

"I'm… I'm fine, find a way to take this prick down!"

"R-right!" Greyson said, quickly consulting his bakupod, bad images and sounds dancing in the back of his mind. Aquos Robotallion 300 g's, Darkus Leonidas 340 g's, Aquos Siege 350 g's." it chimed, Grey starting to panic as he looked up again, his attention drawn by moving figures and a cackling laugh.

"YOU'RE DONE GREY!" Rikimaru yelled, pulling out a new card and holding in front of him. "God damn it!" Greyson said panicked, quickly looking back at his standing Bakugan. "LEONIDAS, GRIFF, BRACE YOURSELVES!"

"Ability Activate: Tsunami Wave!"

Riki's gate card glowed in a blue light, Siege taking a new posture as Robotallion stood back. Leonidas quickly crouched and raised his arms, Griffon lowering himself into a curl, both of the Darkus Bakugan viewing the Siege with focus. A wave of water seemingly materialized out of nowhere, slowly rising at the border of the field on Rikimaru's flank. It thickened for a moment before Siege drew its lance down, the tidal wave beginning to rush forward.

"Big wave, Leonidas can't use abilities…" Grey thought, watching Rikimaru's Juggernoid get quickly swallowed by the colossal barrier.

"Juggernoid wasn't immune, Siege is, how to avoid…" He continued thinking, watching as the wave enveloped Siege, unmoving.

"How to avoid…"

"How to avoid…"

"How to-"

"LEO, GRIFF, FLY UP, GO UP!"

Griffon quickly glanced back at Greyson, but Leonidas did not hesitate, immediately crouching and forcing his wings downward, ejecting him into the air at high speed. Griffon followed, pouncing into the sky with a thrust assist from his wings, the wave barely glancing his snake like tail as he cleared it. "YES, IT-" Grey began, interrupted as an ear splitting sound entered the area. It was the one from before. With Masquerade.

Grey quickly shifted his head toward the destination of the tidal wave, watching as a massive rush of water was sent into an opening dimensional gateway, reality itself seeming to glitch as an ear piercing buzz went off. Juggernoid and the now waveborn Robotallion were both sucked into the water, being sent off into the horrid location with fear in their eyes. "Did he just…" Greyson began, quickly looking toward Riki, the child being obstructed by a body of water and a figure in the dark.

Siege was not pleased with this, his attack only having taken out two Bakugan; of his own team no less. No matter, these two would be defeated one way or another. The Aquos knight in shining armour quickly took its spear into one hand, driving the tip of it upward through the water.

Above, the water level rose suddenly, nearly driving Leonidas off balance as the current took his foot, the Bakugan correcting for this wing a quick wing burst, his mind almost dismissing a sudden water splash if it hadn't been for the putrid whine that was cast into his ears. Both Leonidas and Greyson recognized that, Leo as a Bakugan cry, Grey as a longtime companion.

" **GRIFFON!** "

"GRIFF, NO!"

The brawl watched as the silhouette of his favourite Darkus fighter was pulled under the water, traveling toward the portal at projectile velocity. The child didn't notice his continuous iteration of the word No.

He did notice a second silhouette chasing Griff however.

The wings, the spiked tail, it was Leonidas. "Wait, LEONIDAS NO!" he roared, panicked as he began running toward the Doom portal, some reckless part of his brain telling him he could save them.

They continued toward the portal.

"No no no no no no no no no no!"

They reached the portal.

"NO NO NO NO NO!"

They disappeared.

"NOOOOOOO!"

A few seconds passed.

"NO, LEONIDAS, GRIFFON, NO!"

And then came the scream.

The noise trumped the previous portal sound by a factor of a thousand. A sick electronic screech mixed with amplified static, the wave of water from Siege's attack vibrating under the sound wavelength. Greyson and Rikimaru both dropped to their knees, Grey taking hold of his ears as he felt them electrify with pain.

"What is going on?!" Riki yelled, out of earshot with tears in his eyes

Greyson looked up, the water having dematerialized around the portal, its border crackling with lighting. And within those borders.

Grey's heart stopped.

Darkus Leonidas was gripping onto the portal with all four appendages at play, his clawed hands and feet gripping into the portal's borders as if they were tangible objects. He was holding it open. "Leo…" Grey sputtered, his gaze quickly averting to the creatures face; his eyes were glowing a bright purple colour, his jaws holding something. It was a leg, ending in a paw.

It was Griff.

Leonidas slowly reeled his head back, Greyson lowering his hands as his mind stopped registering the intense shrieking noise given off by the portal. The Darkus Bakugan kept reeling his neck backward as far as it would go, the veins on his body standing out as Griff came into view. Leonidas then, in one fell swoop, let go of his companions leg, bitemarks engraved into the chimera's left foreleg, and let go of the portal's sparking white border with one of his arms, quickly snatching the creature's furry mane with his claw. "Leo… YOU CAN DO IT LEONIDAS!" his brawler roared, his shock turning to power as he quickly got to his feet, yelling his beast on with flying arms and a disregard for his auditory reception. Leo grunted, continuing to reel his arm backward, Griffon almost fully out of the Doom Portal, the Darkus amalgamate looking to him, clearly weak and in a lot of pain. " **GRAB ONTO ME!** " Leonidas commanded, Griffon quickly swinging himself around, latching his paws onto the Bakugans shoulders, then moving his hind legs into a similar position, hugging his savior tightly, tail coiling around both of their bodies as the Alpha reused his arm by latching it onto the border of the Doom gate.

Leonidas let out an aggressive sigh for a moment before he drove all four of his appendages together, an attempt to close the portal.

It was working.

Leonidas' entire body strainted as he drove the portals edges further together, Griff hugging him around his torso, Greyson continued to yell encouragement at him. He was going to do this, he had to do this! He pushed onward, the borders of the Doom gate straining more so than him now, continuing to be pushed closer together until it happened.

It closed. No explosion, just closure.

Leonidas drove the electrical border of the dimensional hole shut, the screeching noise and that of the gate itself ceasing to be as the purple gate ceased to exist, as did its electrical border. A shockwave of energy was sent out from its origin, visibly sweeping across the field, shattering every gate card it came into contact with and sending window sized fragments of them into the air. Siege and Rikimaru watched in awe and terror respectively. Another individual simply said this:

"YOU DID IT!" Greyson roared, his heart beating again.

Leonidas, having no method of holding himself up due to the lack of the Doom portal, immediately fell downward, his attempt to stabilize himself via his wings failing due to the wait of Griff, still hugging him tightly. The Darkus Bakugan fell to the ground with a thud, Leonidas landing into a sitting position as he attempted to prevent himself from fully falling onto his back. He remained there for a moment, simply breathing heavily as his muscles calmed from their strenuous use. "Leo!" he heard, his eyes quickly rolling up to look down at his brawler running toward him. He then looked at Griff, still pinned to him, Leonidas only now noticing the pain of having four sets of claws dug into his hide, holding on for what the creature likely still assumed was dear life. " **Griffon.** " he said simply, taking hold of the Bakugan's shoulders and lightly pulling at them, Griff opening his eyes and slowly reeling himself back, shaking. " **Are you injured?** " he asked, looking into the Darkus being's eyes with a different kind of passionate flame. Griffon sputtered for a moment, incapable of speech, before he buried his head into the draconians shoulders, whining and crying in despair. Leonidas, slightly surprised, went to move him, but instead decided against it, letting the Bakugan vent into his shoulder; he needed to let it out. Greyson stopped and stood there for a moment, his focus on Leo switching from excitement to curiosity. He held Griffon like his Mother would hold himself, staring at the ground and holding him while he cried.

"Leo…"

Leonidas glanced at Grey for a second before averting his focus back Griffon. The fight wasn't done yet. He could, even now, sense Siege watching them, probably laughing at them… This would not do.

" **Griff.** " the Bakugan said sternly, Griffon removing his head and looking into Leonidas' eyes. " **Are you hurt?** ". Darkus Griff sniffled for a moment before giving out a passionate bark, a signal alien to Grey, clear to his monster. " **Good.** " Leonidas said, motioning for Griffon to get off him as he stood up, the fire returning to his voice.

" **We've still got a job to do!** "

Leonidas and Griffon both stood up, turning to face Rikimaru and Siege. Greyson, viewing them like an excited child, also turned, his mind still holding back the flood of thoughts on what had just happened, instead turning his focus to Rikimaru, who looked ten times as dumbfounded as he did.

"W-w-wha… HOW ARE YOU STILL HERE?!" he screamed, consumed by confusion.

" **YOU'RE PATHETIC, THAT'S HOW!** "

"Jesus…"

Rikimaru, fully taken aback by the fact that he had just been insulted by a Bakugan he thought dead, struggled to find words, quickly consulting his bakupod for information.

"$ &*$^ (*$^& #$^ $^ #&$ #($% ($&%# $% $% $%#&$% "

"Y-you… You can't d-d-do this, t-this is cheating!" Riki countered, fully terrified as he realized his plan had fully failed.

" **Listen here you little prick.** " Leonidas said plainly, the aggression in his voice someone muting as Rikimaru stared ahead, Leonidas and Griffon walking forward, Grey following along with the act.

" **You're a cocky lunatic, you sent two of my kind to the Doom Dimension, and you almost killed my friend.** " he said, slowly approaching as anger seeped into his voicebox, his head pointed downward so Riki couldn't see his eyes. " **In my eyes, you deserve a similar fate to those who trusted you.** "

Siege stuck its spear out to the side, a message telling the three oncomers to stop, which they did.

" **But I'm not gonna banish the messenger, no…** " Leonidas said, aware that Rikimaru was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

" **But that Aquos Siege that swept its friends off to it…** "

Leonidas raised his head, starring Rikimaru down with glowing purple eyes as small fragments of the gate cards began to fall like glowing snowflakes.

" **TRAITORS DON'T GET MERCY!** "

Leonidas' claws flared outward, Griffon crouched down in a pouncing stance, and Greyson quickly grabbed hold of his remaining ability cards, looking up at his Bakugan for a second, feeling their hearts beating as one.

"Let's do this thing!"

Leonidas immediately charged forward, the pure white terrain beneath his clawed feet as he ran along. Griffon stayed back, sensing Grey's card selection and assuming a stance, crouching lightly with his horn aimed forward. "Ability Activate: Griffon Roar: Crystal Cannon!" was yelled by Greyson, holding forth an ability card whose energy immediately transferred toward Griff's crystalline horn. "Lay down covering fire, let's go!" Grey commanded, Griffon immediately taking aim toward the Aquos Siege, careful not to hit Leonidas as a bright purple laser beam launched from his head spike. The cannon launched toward Siege, who simply shifted into a liquidus form, sliding slightly to the side, and reformed, surprised and stunned when the horn cannon swept to the right like a blade and made a slash-like blast mark across its chest. Colour him even more surprised when he saw a Darkus dragon come flying at him like a projectile, claws outstretched. Quickly, Siege thrusted his lance upward to act as a barrier toward Leonidas, the Darkus Bakugan instead grabbing it and flipping off Siege, tearing the spear from his grip in the process. Leo, acting quickly, immediately swung the lance over his head and back into Siege's head like a hammer, the side of the spear that made contact cracking, as did the knight's faceplate. "Leonidas, here!" he heard Grey yelling, eyes darting upward as he saw the boy hold a glowing card and a Griffon charging a second shot.

"Ability… Screw it, ABILITY ACTIVATE: ALPHA BLASTER!"

Leonidas' muzzle immediately began charging with electrical energy, Siege stirring slightly as he attempted to gain his bearings. Out of the corner of one eyes, a distant figure with a glowing card and a canid with a glowing orb on its face. To the other, a closer dance of sparks coming from the face of what seemed to be a draconian.

Oh… Wait!

Grey shot his arm into the air before locking it down forward.

"FIRE!"

The two projectiles shot outward from their respective sources, Griff's faster, Leo's more powerful, each beam displacing the still falling, glowing card fragments from around them.

"SIEGE, NO!"

 _ **BLAAAAAAAAAATTTZZ**_

And then; Kaboom.

" _ **oooONK HONK HONK**_ "

The car from before continued moving on, the confused driver swerving slightly as he moved passed the two kids, one of which was breathing heavily. Greyson stood panting for a time, barely catching his Bakugan without losing his balance. He continued starring downward for a time, trying to catch his breath and muster the energy to stand up straight. This came to him as he heard a certain child begin to cry. "I… I-I l-lost! Again!" Rikimaru cried, collapsing to his knees and starting a full scale emotional breakdown. "H-he told m-me if I used Siege, I c-c-could b-beat you, I…" he continued, breaking down as he failed to notice his enemy walking toward him.

Riki was grabbed by both his shoulders, being hoisted up to his feet with a grunt from Grey, the boy staring forward into a pair of discoloured eyes. "You, are never, going to be strong if you think power comes from physical ability alone." Greyson said sternly, his eyes piercing Rikimaru's, observing the full spectrum of emotions his tear coated eyes were going through.

"You aren't going to get better if you rely purely on big Bakugan and brute force attacks. It might sound shallow coming from me, considering we did just break the field, but it is true. Nothing is going to come of you continuing like this, you have to change to get better."

The red headed child stood there for a second, continuing to stare into Grey's eyes before looking downward. "M-masquerade said I could keep Aquos Siege if I beat you…" he said softly, feeling a weakness in his knees. "A Bakugan doesn't need to have a gpower to be good." Greyson replied, taking his hands off of Riki's shoulders. " **Masquerade's a bad person, he sends Bakugan to the Doom Dimension without a second thought, without any motive behind causing their suffering.** " Leonidas added, perching himself on his brawler's shoulder. Rikimaru didn't say anything, instead letting out a sigh and staring down at the floor, the scope of what he had done fully hitting him. He stopped crying, instead raising his arm in front of him and unclipping the shooter the enigmatic brawler had given him, letting it drop on the ground. Grey and Leo glanced down at it for a moment before looking up, Riki having turned and started to walk away. "Hey, are you gonna be okay?" Greyson asked, tilting his head slightly in a mild confusion.

Rikimaru glanced back, smiling. "Y-yeah… Thanks Greyson Noboru!" he said before turning back forward, running along the bridge until he was out of view.

" **Well…** " Leonidas began. " **That was exciting-** "

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

Greyson began screaming, dropping to his knees and holding his ears. " **Greyson! What's wrong?!** " the Darkus Bakugan asked, panicked by his companions sudden change in mood. "THAT WAS NOT OKAY, NONE OF THAT WAS OKAY. I ACTED LIKE IT WAS CAUSE OF THE ADRENALINE BUT IT WAS NOT, NOT OKAY!" he responded, yelling like a maniac and holding his shot ears. " **Hey, HEY! Calm down!** " Leonidas said sternly, Greyson stumbling to his feet and latching onto the railing on the side of the bridge, taking a moment to breath before saying anything else. The Bakugan remained silent for a moment before continuing. " **Are you alright?** " he asked, floating up and perching himself on the railing. "Y-yeah… That was just… A little…" Grey said disjointedly, searching for words as his head stabilized.

" **Intense?** "

"That's… One word for it…"

"You wanna tell me just what the heck happened in there?" Greyson inquired, supporting himself on the railing of the bridge. " **We defeated the crying child.** " Leonidas informed, his voice plain and unassuming. "I meant the other thing, the thing that may have given me permanent hearing damage." the boy corrected, leaning backward with his back to the railing, looking down at the shooter Rikimaru dropped.

"You saved Griff."

" **The fight would have been harder if I hadn't.** "

"You called him your friend."

Leonidas stirred a little, turning and looking out over the river. The sun was some distance above the body of water, but its reflection still sent a warm light cascading throughout the valley it was in. " **During the fight… You called me Leo.** " Leonidas said, lowering his head slightly, drawing the attention of Greyson, having gone to pick up the shooter and inspect it. "Oh… Sorry… Surge of the moment-" he began, interrupted by Leonidas' now compassionate voice. " **No, no… If you want to… You can call me that.** " he said, glancing over slightly as Grey placed the strange device on the concrete barrier between them and the open air. "Really?" Grey asked, a sense of childlike wonder filling his voice. " **Yes… But only you can do that, nobody else!** " the Bakugan responded, his tone of speech flaring slightly as he spoke, leading Greyson to chuckle lightly, finding some amusement in Leonidas giving terms to the agreement. Then there was a time of silence, the duo both looking out at the Wardington sun over the water. "Leo?" Grey inquired. " **Yes?** " Leonidas responded.

"When you saw Griff getting flushed into the portal, why did you charge at him…"

" **He was in trouble.** "

"But… I mean… There was no hesitation, it's like you knew exactly what to do when you saw that, when you grabbed the portal…"

Leonidas fell silent, looking down slightly as Greyson spoke.

"How did you know how to do that?"

Silence.

Silence.

And more silence. About half a minute of quiet was shared between the two.

"You know what, that's fine." Grey said finally, Leonidas turning to him as he picked up the shooter and checked the inside piece. " **Hmm?** " the Darkus creature vocalized, curious as to what Greyson meant. "We're all entitled to our privacy Leonidas, forget I asked." the brawler said, holding the shooter in his hand and arching it backward. "Now…"

"YEET!"

 _ **Kersploosh**_

"We were sent out to get something or other from the market, that we shall do!" he said cheerfully, putting a hand out for Leonidas to hop into. " **Right!** " the draconian replied, hopping into his partner's hand and being placed onto his shoulder. And with that, the two began heading toward their original destination, going to the market to buy some beef.

"Why did you throw the shooter into the river anyway?"

"I dunno, felt nice I guess, felt liberating."

"Shame, you could have used it yourself."

"..."

"..."

"Oh, GOD DAMN IT-"

* * *

 _ **And Now a Preview of Next Week's Episode: Quack Quack Bang Bang**_

"Greyson Noboru, I'm here to challenge you! My name is-"

"I don't speak english!"

* * *

Sorry I'm late...

I had this whole thing prepared, but here's the short version. I have a problem in how I tend to lose interest in things pretty fast, which I then pick up on later (which may be in small part due to my awful time management skills, an affinity for burning myself out, and the general fustercluck that is the rest of my life). I feel like this has happened to All Knighter (after only two episodes, damn it brain), and attempting to keep up with a weekly schedule along with school and work has left me really uninspired and unwilling to write. All Knighter isn't dead, hell no, but I'm gonna be liberalizing the schedule a bit so I can work on episodes in my own time and build up inspiration to do so without rushing episodes with an empty brain. That being said, I'm hoping our next episode is something special, as it features a returning fan favourite character(s), divergence from the anime storyline, and some good old fashioned heart to heart. Until next time, enjoy!

Also the Battle Planet Anime can go eat a lemon.


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